News:
April 22, 2025
President of the Economic Community of West African State (EWCOWAS) Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray has bemoaned the low intra- community trade in the sub-region.
Speaking at the launch of the 50th Anniversary of ECOWAS in Accra on Tuesday, he said one of the areas of reflection as ECOWAS marks it’s Golden Jubilee is how to improve trade among member states.
He stated that despite being a customs unit, intra-community trade stands at 12 percent, which is considerably low compared to trade among European Union and other countries.
He contends therefore that to resolve this low intra-community trade among the ECOWAS member states, it behoves on the bloc to pay attention to addressing infrastructure and energy deficit as well as trade barriers.
But most significantly, there is the need to address supply side constraints by raising productivity in the various countries.
Dr. Touray stated that to increase productivity requires the ability to attract investors locally and internationally.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission also affirmed that ECOWAS’ market of 400 million dollars is a potential mileage to investors. “This, once again underlines the importance of regional integration and few meaningful investors are attracted by the small size of our individual domestic markets”.
Mr Toure urged the region to invest in peace and security; stating that the terrorist menace that constitutes a key basis for insecurity in the region knows no borders, thus making security collaboration in the region imperative.
To this end, he commended President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo, and the Chair of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of States and Government, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria for their efforts at reconciliation and fostering collaboration between ECOWAS and members of the Sahel States.
Ghanamps.com