Annals of “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati Fascicle I. Economics and Applied Informatics Years XXIII – n o 3/2017 ISSN-L 1584-0409 ISSN-Online 2344-441X www.eia.feaa.ugal.ro Some Peculiarities of the Economic Growth in ECOWAS Countries Babacar NDIAYE  , Daniela Ancuta SARPE  , Cyril MANGA  ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Accepted November 2017 Available online December 2017 This article seeks to determine some of the peculiarities of the economic growth in the countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Thus, the study is based on the country approach and uses econometric regression tests. In fact, in the context of the determination of the real GDP per capita growth rate of the countries in this region during the period 1987-2014, the results obtained show that it is still weak and unstable. Moreover, the weak convergence that has only been observed beginning with 2008 feeds the hope that ECOWAS can truly improve its level of development despite the heterogeneous nature of the countries. In order to overcome these difficulties, improving the socio-economic performance through the growth rate of real GDP per capita represents, among others, a necessity in relation to economic policy decisions. © 2017 EAI. All rights reserved. JEL Classification E22, F43, R58 Keywords: Causality, Economic Convergence, ECOWAS, Economic Growth 1. Introduction The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is an economic and political space created since 28 th of May 1975. It consists of fifteen (15) Member States: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. In general, ECOWAS aims to strengthen the economic ties between its member countries in all areas essential to economic and social development (Barry, 2012). In recent years, the socio-economic context of the mentioned community has been characterized by inadequate economic performance. Thus, after having declined in 2009 due to the global economic crisis, the real GDP growth rate improved and rebounded in 2010 with 6.7 %, the highest rate among the five (5) Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs) (BAD – African Bank of Development, 2010). Moreover, the statistics obtained from the first estimates of the regional GDP indicate a marked improvement in the economic growth rate. The economic growth rate stood at 4.9% in 2011, reaching 5.1% in 2012. Later, this rate reached 5.7% in 2013, then 6.1 % in 2014 (ECOWAS, 2015). This evolution is due to the performance of all primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Nowadays, despite the small changes in the economic growth rate, it is noteworthy to report that enormous efforts still need to be made in the region. However, ECOWAS has an important economic potential that can significantly improve its economic performance, particularly with regard to increasing the economic growth rate. This is the case for the efficient oil and mining sectors in some countries (Nigeria, Benin), as well as the agricultural sector considered as the pillar of most economies in the region. In addition, the demand for minerals and hydrocarbons, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the favourable rainfall and development assistance are also assets that could have a positive impact on the growth of the area (BAD, 2011). To this end, this article stands out from previous work insofar as it addresses the peculiarities of economic growth in the ECOWAS countries. While the authorities of the community believe that the effective development of the West African economy can only be achieved through regional integration (the main objective of ECOWAS is to promote economic cooperation and regional integration among member ), it is important to note the feature that economic development is achieved through the mastery of certain aspects (in particular the added value of industry and agriculture, the GDP deflator, foreign trade and gross human capital formation). These aspects will in turn contribute significantly to regional integration. Since our approach focuses on economic growth and some factors likely to improve it, we have described our economy by a production function, highlighting the exogenous factors deemed relevant, having as an indicator the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In addition, the data used are those of the World Bank (WB). They cover the period from 1986 to 2014. The sample size is made up of the fifteen (15) countries of ECOWAS. For more relevance in analyses, the sample size was divided into two groups of  Assane Seck University of Ziguinchor, Senegal,  Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, Romania,  Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, Senegal. E-mail addresses: bndiaye@univ-zig.sn (B. Ndiaye), daniela.ancuta.sarpe@gmail.com (D. A. Sarpe), cyrilmanga88@gmail.com (C. Manga). Corresponding author: Cyril Manga cyrilmanga88@gmail.com