Enhancing international trade in West Africa

By By Samuel Adjetey Osekre

Trade is the engine of economic prosperity, enabling nations to convert comparative advantage into shared prosperity.

In West Africa, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was established in 1975 to promote economic cooperation, regional integration, and free trade across 15 member states, including Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo.

The ultimate legal and economic vision for ECOWAS was to create a space where goods, services, capital, and people could move freely without burdensome barriers.

Yet, more than four decades later, significant challenges remain that hinder seamless trade, restraining the promise of prosperity for millions of West Africans.

In this feature article, we explore how legal frameworks, trade facilitation mechanisms, innovations, challenges, and future prospects shape West Africa’s quest for easier trade within ECOWAS.

A Regional Framework for Free Trade

ECOWAS has progressively developed legal frameworks to liberalise trade. The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme was an early effort to eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers on goods originating within the community.

More recently, ECOWAS adopted a Common External Tariff (CET) in January 2015 to harmonise duties applied to imports from outside the bloc, further supporting internal market predictability.

These legal tools align with the broader African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) objectives, to which ECOWAS member states are signatories, aiming to combine markets across Africa.

Despite these frameworks, intra-regional trade remains modest. Trade among ECOWAS member states has been estimated at approximately 12 percent of total regional trade, a figure significantly lower than major trading blocs such as the European Union. Key reasons include inconsistent implementation of trade rules, persistent border delays, and fragmented standards across countries.

Trade Facilitation Innovations: Bridging Legal and Practical Gaps

In recent years, ECOWAS has introduced several legal and digital innovations to minimise friction in cross-border trade. One such reform is the ECOWAS E-Certificate of Origin, launched in November 2024.

This digital certificate replaces time-consuming paper documentation, providing electronic proof that goods originate from within the Community and are eligible for preferential treatment. The e-certificate simplifies customs procedures, reduces fraud, and speeds documentation across borders, enhancing compliance with rules of origin — a cornerstone of regional trade law.

Another transformative tool is the Interconnected System for the Management of Goods in Transit (SIGMAT), launched in May 2025 between Benin and Nigeria and progressively deployed across nine ECOWAS Member States.

SIGMAT enables the electronic exchange of transit data, reducing redundant customs inspections and accelerating movement along key corridors, such as Abidjan-Lagos, one of West Africa’s busiest axes for freight and trade.

Further support comes from the ECOWAS Trade Facilitation Portal, a digital guide to trade procedures, documentation requirements, and associated timelines across member states. Such transparency is crucial for small and medium-sized enterprises to navigate regulatory environments and comply with national and regional trade laws.

Trade Statistics and Economic Potential

Quantitative data further underline both the potential and challenges of intra-ECOWAS trade. ECOWAS trade flows are diverse, encompassing mining products like oil, iron, and gold as well as agricultural staples such as coffee, cocoa, and tubers. Nigeria alone accounts for more than 76 percent of ECOWAS trade activity, with Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire following as notable contributors.

Beyond formal trade statistics, informal cross-border commerce is also significant. A study on informal trade along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor estimated informal transactions worth $22.8 million, with women comprising roughly 74 percent of traders.

This highlights the economic weight of unrecorded commerce and its role in regional livelihoods, while also underscoring the need for legal frameworks to better integrate informal sectors into formal trade systems.

Moreover, new tools, such as the West African Competitiveness Observatory, launched in 2024, aim to unlock economic potential. Estimates suggest that with improved competitiveness and trade facilitation, West Africa could add $45.7 billion to global exports by 2027, demonstrating the region’s latent capacity if legal and operational barriers are reduced.

Legal Barriers and Persistent Challenges

Despite progress, ECOWAS faces formidable hurdles. The withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger from the bloc in early 2025, as these countries pursued alternate alliances, has disrupted regional integration efforts and reduced the effectiveness of common policies. Such shifts can lead to legal complications in trade agreements and tariff regimes.

Trade law harmonisation also remains nascent in areas like technical standards, sanitary protocols, and transport regulations.

The Abidjan-Lagos Corridor, while economically vital, continues to experience delays due to non-aligned standards and procedural inconsistencies. Initiatives like corridor-wide harmonisation roadmaps for standards aim to tackle these issues but require sustained legal and political commitment from all members.

Informal trade, while economically important, poses regulatory challenges. The lack of reliable data on informal transactions often leads to undercounting in official trade statistics and impedes the formulation of sound trade policy. Strengthening legal mechanisms to capture and support informal traders could broaden the benefits of free trade.

Conclusion
ECOWAS’s mission of unfettered trade across West Africa remains both a legal and economic imperative.

Over the decades, the Community has established frameworks and innovations that promise smoother, more accessible trade from digital certificates and transit systems to trade observatories and facilitation portals. These tools, if fully implemented and consistently harmonised, could transform the dynamics of West African commerce.

Yet, the journey is far from over. Persistent barriers, including legal, administrative, and political, continue to slow the flow of goods and dampen the prospects of a fully integrated regional market.

By reinforcing legal frameworks, investing in digital trade infrastructure, and encouraging collaboration among member states, West Africa can realise a future where trade within ECOWAS is seamless, predictable, and prosperous for all.

The promise of economic unity remains within reach. What is required now is political will, legal consistency, and regional solidarity to make free and easy access to trade across ECOWAS not just a policy goal, but a lived reality for businesses and citizens alike.

 Samuel Adjetey Osekre is a Doctoral Scholar, RUCST

[email protected]

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