ABSTRACT
The Treaty of Lagos establishing the Economic Community of West African States was signed in Lagos on May 28, 1975, after 12 years of gestation. For it was in November 1963, some six months after the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in May of the same year, that, under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the Lagos Conference on Industrial Co-operation in West Africa was held. This first attempt at discussing possible economic co-operation was followed by the agreement to create an Interim Organisation with a view to the establishment of a Permanent Organisation for West African Economic Co-operation. The agreement was signed at Freetown on May 28, 1965, and was then followed, in October 1966, by the Niamey Conference on Economic Co-operation and, in April 1967, by the Accra Conference at which a document entitled "Articles of Association for the Establishment of an Economic Community of West Africa" was signed.
