Considering West Africa: A diamond in the rough with a promising future - but how far into the future?
 While East Africa does well with what little it has, West Africa, with rare exception, is becoming increasingly lawless and chaotic, despite its abundant riches in oil and other natural resources.
Make no mistake, West Africa has a lot going for it. Nigeria has one of the lowest income tax rates in the world, 7-24 per cent, and therefore, a growing consumer base of Nigerians with a lot more disposable income. As a foreign investor, there are investment incentives, some covering all sectors, while others are limited to a few.
Britain and Nigeria have an excellent commercial relations with over GBP6.1 billion (US$8.2 billion) worth of trade per year; the UK is also the second biggest African market for British goods. British companies are well-known in Nigeria, and UK brands (especially luxury goods) are in very high demand.
Nigeria has the largest market in Africa with its population of 200 million. In March 2016, PwC published a report, “Nigeria: Looking beyond Oil”, that raises the Nigerian economy to the top 10 in the world in 2050 with a projected GDP of US$6.4 trillion. A 2018 World Bank report on Business Reforms in Nigeria noted improvements in starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting credit and paying taxes.
So the numbers in West Africa's biggest economy look good. But other numbers not so much. Togo and neighbouring Benin have become the world’s worst piracy hotspot in the Gulf of Guinea that stretches from Senegal to Angola. While the 15 states and western partners signed a pact in 2013 to collaborate in the fight against piracy, the region still accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s pirate attacks.
Togolese forces typically pursue pirates in their own waters. With a coastline of about only 50 kilometres (31 miles), they need to hand over to a neighbouring state to continue the chase. Individually countries are doing what needs to be done, but operationally, response falls far short of effective pursuit, much less having any hope if being a credible deterrent.
Result: The Gulf of Guinea accounts for 81 per cent of crew kidnappings globally, according to the International Maritime Bureau. This results in higher insurance premiums and security expenses that have driven up the cost of shipping in the region.
Violence afloat is doubly matched with violence ashore, where Islamic terrorism stalks the land and largely ignored by western media bent on casting Muslims in a positive light.
Boko Haram guerillas, who call themselves the Islamic State in West Africa, operate in Islamic northern Nigeria. They attack army bases and target Christian areas, raising money through ransoms raised by kidnapping, and thefts of valuables and cattle from settlements.
Adding to the chaos, is a resurgent Biafran separatist movement, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been attacked by the Nigerian Army in the fight against Boko Haram, who the Biafran do not support.
“it is quite pathetic how the Nigerian Army would belittle themselves in the eyes of the world by involving IPOB in their futile attempt to deflect attention from their failed effort to fight terrorism,” an IPOB spokesman told the Lagos Daily Post.
Despite ongoing efforts by the French Army, the security situation in the Sahel region remains poor. Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed after armed Islamists first revolted in northern Mali in 2012. The conflict quickly spread to neighbouring countries, prompting the creation of the anti-jihadist task force known as the G5 first with 3,000 soldiers, then later increased to 4,500, deployed to the member West African states of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, aimed at ousting Islamic insurgents in former French territories.
Although France remains the only Western country with a significant military presence in the Sahel, it has not significantly ousted the guerrillas. And its relationship with its former African colonies has grows increasingly tense, reports Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster.
Niger Defence Minister Issoufou Katambe told Deutsche Welle of one Boko Haram attack: "I don't think the jihadists knew our weaknesses. There were many hundreds of them, with tanks and lots of other materials. It was a surprise attack."
"In areas where the state has been absent for a very long time, obviously anyone who comes in is welcome, if they say they can guarantee safety and security," he says.
"Although there is a body of opinion that thinks any foreign troop presence in a country is making the situation worse because it doesn't repel extremists, it actually attracts them. The groups who are carrying out the attacks are getting more daring and not only taking on the soft civilian targets like they used to."
Small steps have been taken to limit small arms and light weapons (pistols, rifles, machine guns and motars) proliferation in West Africa through the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) or "EU ATT Outreach Project (EU ATT OP)", organised by the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control and Expertise France.
The two-day workshop was in line with phase two of EU activities to support implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) dubbed, "EU ATT Outreach Project (EU ATT OP)", which is executed by the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control and Expertise France, an organisation based in France.
Said Jones Applerh, executive secretary of Ghana's National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCSALW): "The ATT implementation is national responsibility. States are called upon to strengthen their national control systems and develop control list on conventional arms."
To this end, at least Ghana, the most stable of the West African states, had gone some way to check arms proliferation. Guns belonging to the Ghana Police Service, for example, are now marked to help track them, adding that those in Volta, Oti regions had been marked, while the exercise was ongoing in Ashanti Region.
Mr Applerh said stakeholders were considering the development of a mobile application that would ease the process of renewing gun licenses to increase annual renewal which was currently about 60,000 out of about 1. 2 million licensed gun bearers.
He said stakeholders were considering the development of a mobile application that would ease the process of renewing gun licences to increase annual renewal which was currently about 60,000 out of about 1. 2 million licensed gun bearers.
Corruption is endemic and detrimental to economic, political and social development of West Africa says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OEDD). It distorts market competition, undermines productivity and impedes sustainable economic growth. This can be measured. While sub-Saharan Africa has become a commercially significant market, bribery and corruption risks are deterring higher rates of investment and the ability of companies to conduct business fairly on a level playing field.
The African Development Bank estimates that $148 billion is lost to corruption in Africa every year. The bribery risks confronting both African and foreign companies in Africa, including small and medium-sized enterprises, can be attributed to multiple factors. These include the prevalence of business sectors prone to corruption, predominantly cash-based economies, the requirement to use local agents to carry out projects, systemic public sector corruption; and weak law enforcement capacity often topped with lack of political will.
More than anything else, it is a lack political will to tackle corruption, or do much else effectively of an inter-state nature in West Africa that seems to be the cause of a continuing malaise of the region despite its riches.
All the machinery to do the job appears to be in place. There are engines of inter-state cooperation that are laid out in a manner that is as good as can be expected. Chiefly that is through Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with all the machinery to have West African running like a top.
Typical of the malaise is the case when West Africa's top court ordered Sierra Leone to revoke a ban on pregnant girls in school, a move activists hope could lead to challenges against similar laws across Africa. This was the ruling of the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. But the Sierra Leone's education minister David Senghe declined to comment on whether the government would respect the ruling. Previous Sierra Leonean governments have ignored decisions by the court.
And so it goes between government agencies, not to mention the frictions that stymie cooperation between agencies of neighbouring governments that makes the suppression of piracy difficult if not impossible, or the inabilitity of west african militaries to co-operate in suppressing terrorism ashore. Or any agency with the power to deal with corruption to do anything about it. All of which makes a promising land for growth far less promising for investment. |
