A Tale of Two African Cities and troubles within ECOBANK, even as it opens base in Addis (1)

I spent the better part of the weekend salivating over the thought of ECOBANK finally establishing a presence in the diplomatic capital of Africa—Addis—that it might have seemed that I was paying attention to little else. I have never been a numbers' man, but it struck me as quite significant noting that in this fiftieth year of OAU/AU celebration, ECOBANK would celebrate no less than 25 years of its anniversary, and open the 35th branch in Ethiopia. I have yet to work out what this all means for intra-African trade.

Suffice-to-say, my March 2011 experience when I spent almost a month in Addis, struggling to access my Ghanaian money from the DASHEN bank in the Piazza district of Addis (because I assumed VISA would enable me do so easily), will most definitely be consigned to history. I can now safely travel to Addis, leave my negligible money in my ECOBANK account here in Accra, and be able to access it in Addis seamlessly. Need I say that the proof will most definitely be in the pudding?

Despite this celebration, I could not help but feel compelled to turn to the “Jeune Afrique” 29 September-5 October 2013 edition, entitled “Reglements de comptes a ECOBANK”. Crudely translated, it means “Settling of scores at ECOBANK”. It really is a riveting read that details the machinations among ECOBANK boss Thierry Tanoh (an ex-World Bank agency man); Arnold Ekpe; Laurence do Rego; and one of the sons of one of the co-founders of ECOBANK Kolapo Lawson. Buried within the whole ten-pager or so is a tale of how the same kind of people that took ECOBANK to the heights of its “Pan-African” status are now squabbling among themselves, forming camps that sadly look like the usual Nigeria-South African dynamic that has dominates African world politics-proper.

To say it is unfortunate is an understatement. I am not at all surprised the South Africans now have a 12% stake in ECOBANK. My untrained banking mind can only speculate that the South Africans are pinching themselves so hard how they allowed a seminally-West African bank to reach such great heights when their own Standard Bank/Stanbic Bank could not reach the same heights. You will not be surprised to read that there is a camp within the “Ecobankers” (mostly Nigerian) that naturally feel Ecobank should not lose its West African clout at the expense of what some might consider an arriviste South Africa.

A truly West African week!
All that said, I could have sworn the whole week was a West African one—even if I could have sworn much of the Ghanaian media on radio and television were not making one feel all solidaritous about being West African. Apart from ECOBANK, there was a meeting that took place in the Eastern region of Ghana, which was welcome news about improving the infrastructural development of the sub-region: the countries of Benin; Cote d'Ivoire; Ghana; Togo; and Nigeria will be involved in the 1178.84 kilometre project, which is estimated to cost $58.9 billion, and would link the five countries to facilitate the movement of people, goods and services within the sub-region.

You will re-call from last week that the seven days played host to no less than two important meetings that took place in Addis, first (from 21-25 October), and then in Dakar on Friday 25 October. The Addis meeting was emphatic about where Africa has to go on regional economic integration; the Extraordinary ECOWAS Summit in the Senegalese capital less so. Only Monday 28 October, Ghana played host to an IMF-sponsored meeting about financial integration in West Africa; and Tuesday's front-page of Business & Financial Times featured the Executive Secretary of UN Economic Commission for Africa Carlos Lopez entitled “ECA boss warns African leaders over EPA

” If you thought that was nothing to be excited about, wait till you read what the African Union's Commissioner for Trade & Industry read in her opening statement in the home of the African Union.

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on [email protected] / Mobile: +233-268.687.653.