The road from Abidjan to Lagos could breathe new life into West Africa's regional bloc, Ecowas.
West African leaders are gearing up for a crucial summit on Sunday in Nigeria's capital Abuja, where they will focus on the morale-sapping departure of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from their 15-member bloc Ecowas.
Just as Western Europe matched the Soviet-led communist bloc with a "Common Market" that later evolved into today's trading powerhouse, the European Union , so Ecowas may find that a drive for prosperity and growth proves to be its most effective response to the wave of military coups and nationalism that have swept across the region since 2020.
With the departure of Mali, Burkina and Niger, the bloc will lose 76 million of its 446 million people and more than half its total geographical land area, with the loss of vast tracts of the Sahara – a painful blow to prestige and self-belief.Supporters of the three states pulling out of Ecowas have compared it to Brexit, the UK's withdrawal from the EU in 2020
Construction of the proposed four-to-six lane motorway is forecast to create 70,000 jobs, with completion ambitiously targeted for 2030. And now the proposed highway and rail line promise to further speed the flow of trade and travel between the coastal economies, boosting competitiveness and integration and transforming the region's attraction for investors - just as the EU transformed trade and development across the European continent.
For not only do Mali, Niger and Burkina face severe development and security challenges, but they are also all landlocked, and heavily dependent on their coastal neighbours, through transport, trade and labour migration.Livestock from the three countries in the Sahel is exported on the hoof to feed city dwellers in Dakar, Abidjan and Lagos.
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