The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa is not giving Morocco an answer on its admission bid in its upcoming summit scheduled for the 16th of December in Abuja, Nigeria, an authorized source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation told Yabiladi on Friday. In fact, the Pan-African organization has decided to postpone deciding on Morocco's application, the same source explained. «To accept the Kingdom's bid to join the organization, member states need to read a report which measures the impact of such an application», stated our source. «What happened exactly is that the ECOWAS members asked to be permitted an additional period to finish reading the report». According to the same source, Morocco's admission will be confirmed in «an upcoming extraordinary session in 2018». For the record, on the 24th of February 2017, King Mohammed VI sent a letter to the Ellen Kohnson Sirleaf, current President of Liberia and Chairperson of ECOWAS presenting the kingdom's will to join the regional community as a full member. Morocco's application to join the Economic Community of West African States has been accepted in principle on the 4th of June amid the organization's summit held in Liberia. Since then, ECOWAS has been studying the Kingdom's request before granting it the official and final OK. However, a number of Nigerian lobby groups have been attempting to pressure the government into refusing Morocco's bid.
