Nigeria has nothing to fear from Ghana or her other West African countries, and so must open her markets to her neighbours without any prohibitions, ECOWAS Chair John Mahama has said.

According to the Ghanaian president, the yearly list of trade prohibitions published by Nigeria against Ghana and other West African neighbhours is counterproductive to the integration agenda of the sub-region.

“We need a West African clearing house where we can clear our LCs and trade instruments to be able to move goods across our countries without prohibitions, and I keep telling my friend president Jonathan that that prohibition list that Nigeria publishes every year is a thing of the past”, the president of the world’s second-largest cocoa producing country said when spoke as the Guest of Honour at the launch of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) in Accra Wednesday.

The Nigerian bank recently, wholly, acquired Ghana’s International Commercial Bank (ICB).

Using the opportunity to campaign for increased trading between Africa’s biggest economy and the world’s major gold producer, President Mahama said: “Nigeria has nothing to fear from Ghana, you are the largest economy in Africa. You must learn to compete with Ghana”.

“…Tell your Manufacturers’ Association of Nigerian that you have nothing to fear from Ghana; competition is good for both countries. Let us export the textiles into your country; let us export the processed goods into your country; and you export yours into ours; and I think that it’ll make our two countries stronger”, Mahama said.