COMING UP!> Ep.60 of "Africa in Focus" Show on 3 February, 2016: Time with Former ECOWAS Staff Frank Ofei

Episode #60:

Time with…former ECOWAS Staff Frank Ofei

For the sixtieth edition of AIF, we want to reprise a conversation with former ECOWAS Official Frank Ofei, who was in no mean part responsible for the revision of the 1993 ECOWAS Treaty.

Last time we spoke with Mr.Ofei was in July 2015 in ep.43.

Much has happened since: ECOWAS has celebrated forty years of its existence, and only two days ago on 1 February, Ghana joined ECOWAS member States to implement the ECOWAS Common External Tariff. This is undoubtedly an important step in ECOWAS’ plans to integrate States economically.

Economists believe there are five finite steps to the establishment of an economic union. These are: Free Trade; Customs Union; Common Market; Economic Union; and Political Union.

That ECOWAS has embarked on this ambitious step of a CET gives vent to the idea that an ECOWAS of the people may just be in course.

Who better to tell us than the ECOWAS insider who was an ECOWAS Director for almost two decades at the then-Secretariat before it was transformed into a Commission in 2007: Mr.Frank Ofei.

E.K.Bensah will be spending the afternoon speaking with him.

Call us on the following numbers

+233(0)289.000.931 

Join us if you can at 2.05pm on 3 February, 2015.

Guiding questions

• · What is significance of ECOWAS Common External Tariff on Ghana' s economy?
• ·   What is regional significance of CET?
• ·    In light of Burkina Faso attack in January by Islamist terrorists, is Ecowas condemned to direct integration efforts towards peace and security/terrorism?
• ·  How feasible is the ECOWAS Biometric ID Card, and how will it aid integration?
• ·    Guinea-Bissau is the weakest link in Ecowas. What does 2016 look for her?

Guests in the studio:

Ø  Frank Ofei, Independent Economic Consultant/retired ECOWAS Director at ECOWAS Commission

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more details will be available soon on www.africainfocusradioshow.org ; africainfocusshow.blogspot.com.