Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 187 ii. Delay in implementation of trade liberalisation policies The lack of economic performance on the part of virtually all West African States necessitated in the period between mid-1980s to early 1990s, the implementation of unilateral trade liberalisation programmes by these States under various Structural Adjustment Programmes(SAP) supported by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund(IMF). 220 Today, these programmes have been supplemented by the adoption of the ECOWAS of the Common External Tariff(CET) of the UEMOA as an essential component of the creation of the ECOWAS Customs Union in 2008. However, as outlined above, the trade liberalisation scheme of ECOWAS has faced obstacles and challenges that have hampered its effective implementation, not least the existence of the two liberalisation schemes in the region. 221 iii. Infrastructural Facilities Inadequate infrastructural facilities have tendered to hinder effective movement of persons, goods and services in the West African sub-region. To address this problem, Member States of the ECOWAS have looked in the direction of achieving an integrated transport and communication infrastructure within the community. Action taken in the road transport sector includes the construction of the West African Trans-Coastal highway(from Lagos to Nouakchott) and the Trans-Sahelian Highway(from Dakar to N'djamena) stretching to some 90,000 kilometres. These two highways are based on the Pan-African Highway Plan. 222 Added to these is the construction of interconnecting roads to open up the land-locked countries. A common Regional Road Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme to improve the competitiveness of the economies of ECOWAS Member States, facilitate free movement of persons, goods and services, create employment and promote trade is also being implemented within the framework of the Short-Term Plan of NEPAD and the Sub-Saharan African Transport Programme. 223 In the telecommunications sector, action taken by ECOWAS Member States includes linking the 15 States with telephone, telex and fax facilities under the INTELCOM 1 programme. INTELCOM 1 is to be updated by INTELCOM 11 to expand the existing network and ensure interconnectivity with the telecommunications highways. 224 Finally, improvement in the energy sector is to be brought about by sustainable power in the form of the envisaged West African Power Pool. 225 220 See Leith, J. C. and M. Lofchie(1993)“The Political Economy of Structural Adjustment in Ghana”, in R. H. Bates and A. G. Krueger(eds.) Political and Economic Interactions in Economic Reform, Oxford, Blackwell. 221 See supra. 222 See Bonaventure Adjavor, Regional Integration in Africa, p. 19, Paper Prepared for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and NEPAD, Accra, Ghana. Writer has copy on file. 223 Ibid. 224 Ibid. 225 Ibid. On the West African Power Pool, see intra p. 20.