In general, the Central and West African market can be divided into several tiers of opportunity:

* Cote d'Ivoire (French), Ghana (English), Senegal (French) and The Gambia (English) are generally regarded as good markets with political stability and relatively easy entry.

* Nigeria (English) and Cameroon (English and French) are looked at as good markets that may pose more of a challenge.

* Togo (French), Benin (French), Gabon (French), and Guinea (French) are good markets, generally open to U.S. products, but where entry into the market may require extra effort.

Markets which are developing but should not be discounted are Mali (French), Mauritania (French), Niger (French), and Cape Verde (Portuguese and French). While Chad (French) and Equatorial Guinea (Spanish and French) are developing countries with pockets of opportunity, and Liberia (English) is in the process of rebuilding its economy and infrastructure.

Interest in American products is high in both the English- and the French-speaking countries and many French-speaking businesspeople see learning English as their next step to more profitable business. American firms interested in doing business in Central and West Africa need to understand that the development of Central and West African markets will take significantly more personalized transactions than entry into a more mature market. Nevertheless, there is more money to be made in Central and West Africa and, as important, an economy to be developed. With a few exceptions (owing primarily to political unrest), business activity is increasing throughout the region and is expected to continue over the next few years.

Best Prospects

The Central and West Africa sectors that hold the most promise for U.S. exporters are:

• Oil and gas extraction and refining equipment industries
• Mining
• Agro-industrial machinery and chemical
• Food processing equipment and technology
• Telecommunications
• Generic pharmaceutical products
• Reconditioned industrial equipment
• Cosmetics
• Used clothing

The Central and West African region holds some of the world's best prospects for the remaining areas of unlicensed oil and mineral exploration. New seismic data and changing technology that reduce costs in deep water make deep water offshore oil prospects in West Africa viable and have generated serious interest by major oil companies.

Regional Cooperation Makes It Easier To Do Business

As a result of regional cooperation, entry into one Central and West African country often grants easy access to numerous other countries in the region. Harmonization of regulations, customs, banking laws and currencies is already in place or in the works.

For most of the Francophone countries (Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Togo, Benin, Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), monetary union already takes place under French Franc zone arrangements. They have common central banks, the BCEAO (Central Bank of West African States) located in Dakar, Senegal, and the BEAC (Bank of Central African States) located in Yaounde, Cameroon. To ensure convertibility of the CFA franc, the Banque de France guarantees the money issued by the BCEAO and BEAC, in exchange for reserve requirements at the French Treasury and strict controls on the creation of new money. Accordingly, the CFA franc is widely regarded as a "hard currency" and businesses can quote prices in CFA franc throughout much of region.

Since 1995, owing to the stable value of the currency, inflation rates have been in the single digits for all of the CFA franc countries. There are almost no restrictions on the repatriation of profits or investments in the CFA franc zone.

The UEMOA (Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africain) covering 60 million inhabitants, which is composed of in the following member countries: Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Togo, Benin, Niger, Guinea-Bissau, and Burkina Faso. Under this treaty, the member countries have undertaken to coordinate their economic, financial, and structural policies.

The CEMAC (Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale) comprises more than 30 million consumers in Central Africa, incorporating Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo. The long-term goals of CEMAC are to promote a convergence of macroeconomic policies, stabilize the common currency, create a single market, and harmonize sectoral policies. CEMAC's goals are similar to UEMOA's; tariff and non-tariff barriers have been removed and competition regulations are being put into place.

The agreement known as OHADA (Organisation pour l'HArmonization du Droits des Affaires en Afrique) harmonizes a broad range of legal systems which previously covered a wide disparity in business law, codes, rules, regulations, and local conventions affecting businesses. The agreement creates a number of uniform acts and sets up organizations when necessary to implement the acts. These acts cover commercial law, law of commercial companies and economic interest groups, organization of securities, bankruptcy proceedings, discharge of liabilities, law of debt collection, accounting, and arbitration.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which groups both Anglophone and Francophone states of the region, also has as its goal (as does UEMOA) a customs union which will eventually lead to a full common market and the free movement of labor. Original ECOWAS arrangements called for full tariff exemptions for companies that are at least 25 percent owned by citizens of member states, and exemptions for goods which are at least 40 percent manufactured within the ECOWAS region. Member countries were allowed to "phase-out" their intra-community tariffs over the coming decade; however, progress to date has been slow.

The Lomé Convention is a trade and aid agreement between the European Union and 46 of Europe's former colonies and dependencies in Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean. Lomé arrangements guarantee duty-free entry into EU member states for a number of commodities and products produced in these countries.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is a regional, multilateral development bank whose shareholders include 53 countries in Africa and 24 non-African countries from the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The United States is the second largest non-regional shareholder, with approximately 6.62 of the Bank's total share holdings. The Bank was created in 1964, and began operations in 1967 to promote economic development and social progress of its regional member countries (RMCs)—individually and jointly. The main goals of Bank activities are to promote sustainable economic growth and to reduce poverty in Africa. The Bank provides financing for a broad range of development projects and programs. For more details on the Bank click on AfDB

U.S. Government Assistance for doing business in the Central and West African Region

When doing business in Central and West Africa, American businesses can turn to the U.S. government for assistance. The United States Commercial Service, which is part of the Department of Commerce, is represented in Dakar, which covers eighteen Central and West African countries unless Nigeria. Additionally, most embassies, consulates, and U.S. Government offices overseas have commercial sections that can provide market research, counseling services, and assistance in making contacts with U.S. businesses. The commercial section is equipped with valuable resources to help businesses learn more about the market and to help locate potential customers, distributors or agents. The latest tool created by the U.S. Commercial Service top help businesses in finding buyers and sellers, qualify new markets, target new markets and close trade deals is BuyUSA

Another tool available to exporters is the Export-Import Bank EXIM Bank of the United States, an independent agency of the federal government. The Ex-Im Bank has one mission: helping the private sector create and maintain jobs by helping finance exports. In over 60 years of operation, the Ex-Im Bank has used loan, guarantee, and insurance programs to support over US$ 300 billion in exports of U.S. goods and services. The Ex-Im Bank is committed to making credit available for sellers of U.S. merchandise to qualified buyers in Africa, and recently created a separate division focused on development of increased lending in Africa.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation OPIC offers U.S. investors political risk insurance against certain adverse action by foreign governments and against political violence. OPIC's political risk insurance also protects against expropriation and against inconvertibility of foreign currency to U.S. dollars that affects the repatriation of profits and other payments. In addition, OPIC offers long-term financing, directly or through guarantees, for commercially viable overseas projects that support U.S. foreign policy objectives.

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