UPSEZWA ECOWAS

active

The objective of this Child Project is to support the ECOWAS Commission to develop and implement at the customs-union level a competitive ECOWAS SEZ policy, legal, regulatory, and institutional framework that aligns with the applicable international SEZ standards (including those set forth in Chapter 14 of the ECOWAS Investment Policy or ECOWIP, the AfCFTA, and the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change). Specifically, by Project completion, IFC expects to achieve the following outcomes: • ECOWAS SEZ Policy: Ratification of a new ECOWAS Investment Policy for SEZs (as requested by the ECOWAS Commission) that will build-upon Chapter 14 of the existing ECOWIP to expand even more broadly the multi-dimensional features of integrated SEZs throughout the ECOWAS common market to respond to the rapidly emerging multi-disciplinary challenges in the region (including terrorist attacks and jihadism); • ECOWAS SEZ Act/Regulations: Adoption of a community-wide ECOWAS SEZ Act and Implementing Regulations that will be applicable throughout the ECOWAS customs union/common market (including the analytical tools that the SEZ regulators in the ECOWAS common market can utilize to evaluate correctly SEZ feasibility studies prepared by private and public-sector stakeholders); and • ECOWAS SEZ Rules of Origin: Integration into the ECOWAS SEZ Act of new ECOWAS SEZ rules of origin that adhere to the rules-of origin and other SEZ requirements of the AfCFTA.