If Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger execute their playbook with ECOWAS, many interesting things will happen. Burkina Faso just unveiled a new passport with no ECOWAS association: “On this passport, there’s no ECOWAS logo, and no mention of ECOWAS either. Since January, Burkina Faso has decided to withdraw from this body, and this is just a realisation of the action already taken by Burkina Faso,” security minister Mahamadou Sana told reporters at the launch on Tuesday.
This is no more an ephemeral rascality by khaki boys, and it is coming at a time when Nigeria has allowed Ovim train station to fade, even as we are borrowing more money to link Kano to Niger Republic who seem not interested in trading with Nigeria/ECOWAS: “Nigeria has secured $1.3 billion in funding to complete a railway project connecting Kano, the largest city in the north, to Maradi in neighbouring Niger, the transport ministry said on Wednesday. The railway line will build on existing economic and social ties to boost trade and cultural cooperation between the two countries.” (Reuters, March 2024)
Seriously, I am not sure how 3 landlocked countries could make this work, since outside ECOWAS, they would be expected to pay more tarriff to move items from Port of Lome and other ECOWAS ports.
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The Illusion of Single Currency and the Traps in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso
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