The Security Implications of ECOWAS Monetary Integration: Evidence from Nigeria and Ghana, 2015–2025

Abstract The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) monetary-integration project is explored in this article in terms of the security challenges it poses to Nigeria and Ghana in the period 2015-2025. While the proposed Eco has not yet started to be used as a new region-wide currency, the missed convergence opportunities have severe economic and political impact and monetary sovereignty has been contested and the launch postponed several times. The study uses a qualitative historical design with the Neo-functionalist approach and documents are sourced from ECOWAS institutions, West African Monetary Institute and Agency, national central banks and peer-reviewed literature. It explores the implications of the security challenges arising from macroeconomic convergence, the impact of monetary integration on the sovereignty and the policy autonomy, and its economic stability and regional security implications. The results suggest that the security advantages of the Eco are contingent rather than automatic, due to enduring macroeconomic disjunctures, asymmetric shocks and unruly institutional authority. Greater convergence and interdependence and regional institutions are needed to convey or drive regional instability, or to build resilience through interdependence and cooperation. This is another sign of the precariousness of the institutional fabric around the Eco project, with Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to exit in the year 2025. The study thus conceptualises the Neo-functionalist spillover as a connection between economic and security integration and proposes the need for a continuous convergence process, a credible governance process and an explicit security-impact assessment prior to implementation. Keywords: ECOWAS, Eco, monetary integration, monetary sovereignty, regional security, Neo-functionalism, Nigeria, Ghana