A two-day stakeholder workshop on promoting small scale cross border trade, rule of law, and use of technology in West Africa has been held in Accra.
The program organised by the POS Foundation, in partnership with Ghana International Trade Commission, with support from German International Organization, GIZ, brought together key private and public sector players in trade from Ghana, La Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
The workshop sought to provide a platform for trade stakeholders to converge, dialogue, and identify challenges and prospects existent within small scale cross border trade in those selected West African countries.
During the opening ceremony, Executive Director of the POS Foundation, Jonathan Osei Owusu, underscored the need for the harmonization of standards and systems within the subregion, to enhance the flow of trade.
He said, “for example, we can have one system that will communicate systems of immigration in Ghana can communicate with that of Burkina Faso and Togo. That is the united systems of African and Technology we are advocating for.”
The CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise in Nigeria, Dr. Muda Yusif, called for improved enthusiasm from governments in the sub-region towards the removal of non-tariff barriers to trade.
The Guest of Honour, and Chairman of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme Task Force, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas was livid about the current state of intra-West Africa trade.
“Intra EU trade is around 68%. In Asia it is also around 65%. So, if ours is hovering at 15%- 20% it means that we are punching way below our belt, we can do more, and we should do more.
And if we do more it only means that we are producing more, we are creating more opportunities for the traders to earn more, and opportunities to employ our young people and we will prosper as a region,” he said.