Final Statement of the Accra Conference about Morocco's Accession to ECOWAS

- The Amadeus Institute, IMANI Center for Policy and Education and Confédération Générale des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM) along with the Regional Alliance for Monitoring of the Moroccan Accession to ECOWAS, emphasize how the pragmatic discussions held today provide insights over the mutual interests for Morocco and Ghana to engage in a deepening of their economic and political relations. Ghanaian private sector and political representatives showed an enthusiastic support regarding Moroccan accession to ECOWAS, which will lead towards strengthening the regional Community.

There is an untapped potential for trade, investments and technical cooperation between the two countries which can be reversed with Morocco’s integration. However, Moroccan and Ghanaian private sectors could undertake immediate initiatives to lay the ground for further sectorial talks.

Five sectors have been identified to strengthen bilateral ties for the benefit of the whole regional community. Firstly, investments in regional infrastructure projects, more specifically in the field of renewable energy, could lower logistical and production costs not only in Ghana, but also in neighbouring countries. Then, cooperation in agriculture and agribusiness could contribute to enhance food security in the region.

Human capital, education and technologies should also lie at the heart of this shared agenda through student’s mobility and incentives as well as investment in telecommunications’ networks and cooperation in other high-tech facilities. Finally, we believe there is room for joint investment in the financial sector with the vision to expand financial inclusion within the Sub-saharan region.

As part of this agenda, and in the scope of a strengthening of the West African Community, an expanding intra-ECOWAS trade and a closer cooperation on monetary issues should contribute to set the ground for a successful single currency to be adopted.

At the occasion of this meeting, the business community representative institutions, Confédération Générale des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM) and its Ghanaian counterpart, Ghanaian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCC) convene to create a joint Business Council. The Joint institution will produce recommendations targeting measures that favour trade between both countries, such as legal framework for movement of people and capital between Morocco and Ghana. This new joint institution will join the Regional Alliance for Monitoring of the Moroccan Accession to ECOWAS.

About the Amadeus Institute

Founded in 2008 and based in Rabat, the Amadeus Institute is an independent Moroccan think tank contributing to public debate in Morocco and Africa. With the aim of raising the voice of southern countries' concerns, the Amadeus Institute has a twofold function: research and analysis as well as the creation of debates. The Amadeus Institute has been organizing the MEDays Forum in Tangier for 10 years, which has become a reference in Africa, with the participation of 150 speakers and 3000 international participants gathered to analyze the economic and geopolitical issues of Africa and the South. Since its creation and thanks to its activities, the institute has managed to create a multidisciplinary and multicultural network that is expanding, strengthening and renewing from year to year. Today, it is positioned as a laboratory of ideas and as a platform for exchanges, meetings and North-South and South-South cooperation.

About IMANI

IMANI Centre for Policy and Education is a Ghana-based think tank of global repute dedicated to the promotion of the institutions of a free society across Africa. IMANI has been consistently ranked among the top 5 most influential think tanks in sub- Saharan Africa and among the top 100 worldwide by the University of Pennsylvania Go To think tank ranking. IMANI principals have shared insightful perspectives about Africa’s development issues on the BBC, CBC, Swiss and Swedish National TV, Austrian National Radio and varied local Ghanaian media. They have also been published (sometimes quoted) in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, London Daily Telegraph, Ghanaian Daily Graphic, San Francisco Chronicle, Ottawa Citizen, South African Star and Business Day and many East and African media.

www.imaniafrica.org

For more information about the conference please visit

www.amadeusonline.org/cedeao/

For media enquiries, please contact:

 Amadeus Institute

Isabelle Dana Bilal

[email protected] +212 6 56 05 05 05

 IMANI

Elvis Aryeh

[email protected] + 23320 9581276

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