ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the process of regional financial convergence in West Africa, which the author define through the practices and interactions of bureaucratic actors within ECOWAS that facilitate, network, and normalize regional activities related to finance. It examines the practice of member state financial deregulation and its impact on ECOWAS’ move toward transnational banking and private equity as main methods of accessing capital in West Africa. The chapter focuses on ECOWAS’ engagement in public–private partnerships’ and the practice of deregulation, which contributes to the development of regional financial convergence. The role of ECOWAS practitioners in creating ECOWAS BIAWE initially was to provide and deploy a strategy to get the incubator created and funded. Financialization in ECOWAS also highlights how there is an emerging form of regional governance through private authority.
