Recently West African leaders met in Abuja for the inauguration of West African Economic Summit where Nigeria pushed for the removal of structural and policy bottlenecks in travel and trade in order to boost economic growth of the sub-region. writes that the new move reignites the hope of actualising the goals of ECOWAS treaty.

It was long conceived that there would come a time when countries in West Africa would have unencumbered movement from one country to another without immigration barriers both by air, by road and by sea. It was also conceived that a time would come when these countries would enjoy one common currency to make it easy to trade among themselves, and to develop highways connecting all the countries in the sub-region.

When the Economic Community of West African States was established in May 1975, these were some of the vision conceived and after 50 years, the time is ripe to begin to realise these objectives.

So, recently, African leaders met in Abuja for the inauguration of West Africa Economic Summit (WAES) at the Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and the focus was how to eliminate structural and policy bottlenecks that inhibited intra-regional trade across the sub-continent.

ECOWAS wants the states in the sub-region to loosen up, remove the barriers that impugn on trade, encourage trading across the member states and also remove all remaining barriers to travel across the borders. It is instructive to note that analysists on travel, tourism and trade posit that in all the sub-regional economic bodies in Africa, ECOWAS is still behind on easy travel, effective economic corporation and easy exchange of currency.

East African Economic Community and South Africa Development Community have advanced to using identity cards to cross borders; unlike in West Africa, where you must submit passports, which must be stamped on entrance and exit. There is no free movement of vehicles across the border without heavy charges and goods from one country to another are flagged down and scrutinized like medical doctor looking for a tiny pebble swallowed by a child.

Such constraints have fueled corruption at the borders and infringed on the rights of the citizens to freely move across the states as envisioned by the ECOWAS treaty. How will member states loosen up these restraining factors? What approach can they adopt in pushing for a more liberal trade interaction among states? These were the butt of discussion at the WAES meeting.

Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, spoke about the importance of deepening regional trade links in line with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), bringing to the fore, the most critical constraints to intra-regional trade, which is Africa’s poor transport infrastructure.

President Tinubu emphasised that intra-regional trade remains under 10%, unflattering reality he stressed West Africa can no longer afford to ignore. He pointed out that the low trade record is not due to a failure of will but a concatenation of many other factors. He emphasised that the global economy will not wait for West Africa to get its act together, and rather than competing in isolation or relying on external partners, the region must strengthen its value chain, invest in infrastructure, and coordinate its policies.

He said: “Our prosperity depends on regional supply chains, energy networks, and data frameworks. We must design them together or they will collapse separately. We must move from declarations to concrete deals; from policy frameworks to practical implementation. Let us also recognize that Africa was left behind in previous industrial revolutions. We cannot afford to miss the next one. Our rare minerals power tomorrow’s green technologies, yet it is not enough to be resource-rich; we must become value-chain smart and invest in local processing and regional manufacturing. The era of ‘pit to port’ must end.

“Governments must provide the right environment: law, order, and market-friendly policies, while the private sector drives growth. Our task is to find new and effective ways to invest in our collective future, improve the business climate, and create opportunities for our youth and women. Let us emerge from this summit with a renewed commitment to ease of doing business, enhanced intra-regional trade, improved infrastructure connectivity, and innovative ideas that move our people from poverty to prosperity.”

In his speech, Tuggar said government would not reinvent the wheel but would build on what the region has and would find new ways that add momentum to the search for peace and stability, prosperity, and growth.

He disclosed that in 2024, West Africa exported goods valued at over $166 billion, yet only 8.6 per cent of that trade remained within its borders. Imports follow the same patterns, which are heavily tilted toward partners outside the continent. “Machinery and manufactured goods from China, India, the United States, and the European Union dominate our import flows, while we continue to export unprocessed raw materials. This trajectory is untenable, and the issue is not just capacity, but orientation,” he said.

Tuggar also observed that though the informal sector finds ways to deliver what the market wants by bypassing borders and regulations when they are too slow and bureaucratic; so African governments in the region need to do more to make it easy to bring that activity within the formal sector, to bring with it the economies of scale and other efficiencies that will accelerate growth and help entrepreneurs.

“This is already happening: this Summit, as envisioned by President Tinubu, is the chance to build on that change,” he said.

The Foreign Affairs Minister said the job of African governments would be to help find the best way to deliver goods and services to its people, to help the private sector and the free market to generate investment and build capacity.

He said: “West Africa, for centuries an equal partner in international trade, was left behind by the industrial revolution and patterns of development that reduced our comparative advantage and still leaves us struggling for fair access to markets and finance. One example: we pay the costs for the climate emergency but received few of the benefits of the process that created it. Competition is healthy, and it is in our common interest to keep that competition healthy and positive for all stakeholders. As a region, West Africa has the scale, talent, and critical mass that no individual state alone can match. Let’s stop outsourcing the future and take back control of our destiny.”

Tugar may be referring to the fact that many of the states are still clinging to the whims of their colonial masters, especially French speaking states. Interest of France sometimes infringe on the objectives of ECOWAS trade treaty. For example, instead of importing provisions and other essentials from France; Ivory Coast, Togo and others can patronise West African countries that manufacture such goods and with further liberalisation on the currency, naira can be used as means of exchange in the sub-region, as Nigeria has the strongest economy so far; until ECOWAS fine tunes the regional currency, the Eco.

The summit, themed: ‘Unlocking Trade and Investment Opportunities in the Region’, dwelt largely on African Continental Free Trade Area. Speakers emphasised that AfCFTA aimed to connect 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion, but efficient transportation of goods and people within the free trade area is crucial for the success of the initiative.

They noted that the lack of full implementation of the African Union’s Single Africa Air Transport Market (SAATM) remained a major obstacle to AfCFTA because protectionist aviation policies by many African countries have hindered the realisation of its full benefits.

Richard Kyereh, an aviation expert at the aviation policy think-tank, Centre for Aviation Policy and Development, Africa (CAPDAfrica), told Aviation Ghana that for AfCFTA to be a true game-changer, the SAATM aspect of things must be considered as soon as possible. SAATM is a flagship program of the AU Agenda 2063 which seeks to create a liberalised single air market for the movement of persons and goods within the African continent. However, despite the fact that many African countries have signed up to SAATM to take advantage of the benefits of open skies, most continue to maintain protectionist regimes because they fear that a liberalised airspace might diminish the growth of their own airlines as against well-established carriers on the continent; ironically, they open up to international carriers that access their airports daily.

In her keynote address, the Director-General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Dr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, said annual trade within ECOWAS averages about $208 billion, with Nigeria accounting for roughly 76 per cent of regional flows. She said institutions like ECOWAS, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), and initiatives such as the West African Competitiveness Observatory, aimed to reduce trade barriers and harmonise customs procedures; but harmony, however, can only be fully realised when “we go beyond shared culture, languages, music, and cuisine, and begin to commonise our identity in digital terms.”

According to Coker-Odusote, “A unified digital identity system is an economic and developmental imperative to our regional growth. When citizens can move across borders with a recognised and verifiable identity, they can trade, access services, establish trust in new markets, and participate meaningfully in regional growth. Digital identity strengthens trade by making the informal visible, reducing fraud, and enabling access to financial services, logistics, and government programs across national boundaries.”

She further said: “Across West Africa, identity management systems are at different stages of development. Nigeria, through the National Identity Management Commission, has enrolled over 120 million citizens under the National Identification Number (NIN) system. Thanks to recent technological upgrades and strategic collaborations, major issues of harmonisation and duplication have been effectively addressed. Ghana’s digital ID system, managed by the National Identification Authority, is widely integrated across banking, voting, and public services. Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal have also made notable progress with biometric systems linked to social programs. However, several countries, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, still face gaps in coverage and interoperability. This disparity weakens cross-border trade, mobility, and trust. For meaningful regional integration, identity must be reliable, digital, and recognised beyond national borders.”

The Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Chris Najomo, in a recent International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) symposium in Zimbabwe, said liberalisation of African airspace is the best way to encourage trade among Africans.

According to him, African governments are aware that liberalisation is best for air connectivity, but they find it difficult to embrace it; instead, they practice protectionism to shield their airlines from competition due to the fear that liberalisation will undermine their national carrier’s market share and profitability.

Najomo also noted that many African states have delayed the implementation of SAATM because of the fear that they will lose control of certain routes which may negatively impact their national airlines.

The Director General regretted that African states have not yet developed robust economic regulations to provide the needed assistance in balancing the needs for liberalisation of the regional routes.

According to Najomo, to liberalise the airspace, states must review their visa policies and eschew visa barriers for African travellers. Najomo said visa barriers have hindered the ease of movement of passengers and goods.

He emphasised that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has prioritised aviation infrastructure development and regional airline partnerships as strategic tools to drive national economic growth, improve connectivity, and strengthen regional integration.

It is expected that ECOWAS Commission must spearhead the efforts being made to promote the economy of the West African sub-continent.