Basil and Mr.Jeng,

I thank both of you for your respective initiatives in bringing the added
dimensions to this topic.

Economic integration of Africa can only be achieved if the existing
regional economic groupings that Basil enumerated in his response are
nurtured, initially, as separate entities.  In this regard, the SDCC and
Arab Maghreb Union are, unfortunately, far ahead of ECOWAS for several
reasons.  As obvious as it may sound, the conditions that must be fulfilled
for us to be on the road to economic integration are i) the recognition of
the desirability and (ii) the will to integrate.  Both have eluded us. Even
if these conditions were fulfilled, the "locomotive engine" (nigerian
econom
y) needed to draw the train along the rails is absent for obvious
reasons.  Unlike ECOWAS, SDCC has South Africa and the Maghreb,
Morocco/Tunisia.

The ADB, as the premier financial institution of its kind in Africa, has
failed in one of its primary missions to assist member countries to
integrate their economies.  The institution concentrated more on the social
and economic part of its mission at the expense of regional integration. I
am happy to state that a balance is now in the proceess of being struck at
the operational level of the Bank.

At some point, Basil, Mr. Jeng and the rest of the folks, it may be useful
to discuss the other reasons for lack of success, particularly the absence
of "compensatory mechanism" as a "carrot" for smaller economies as a way of
strenghtening their will to integrate when the "locomotive engines" have
put their acts together, so to speak.

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