Chairman of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme Taskforce, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has implored West African governments to embrace technology and innovation to promote cross-border trade.
According to him, the deployment of tech-based trade innovations will address the bottlenecks currently stifling cross-border economic activities and proffer changes to business processes within the sub-region.
“We need to look inwards to see how we can pull strengths from our own economies and produce more internally to be able to trade more and to take advantage of the opportunities for trade-led development,” he said at a workshop organised jointly by POS Foundation and the Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC) with support from GIZ.
Participants examined the web portal that provides information on business operations across the sub-region to inform prospective investors and entrepreneurs wanting to do business in West Africa.
Small and medium sized enterprises contribute the largest proportion of the continent’s trade and are therefore to be encouraged to produce more in the collective call to boost cross-border trading.
Executive Director of POS Foundation, Jonathan Osei Owusu, emphasized the significance of regional integration to cross border trade.
“We cannot talk about human rights without development; and it’s a fact that where there is development, the citizens are able to fight for themselves when their rights are being abused.
Therefore, the connection between rule of law when it comes to trade and getting economic emancipation as citizens of West Africa will help to protect rights and bring about sustainable development,” he noted.
Economic operators and representatives of business communities from the sub-region shared common challenges facing intra-African cross-border trade.