ECOWAS Parliamentarians Take Trade Reform Drive To Factories, .Markets

By Jane Salihu

Members of the ECOWAS Parliament have taken their campaign for improved regional trade beyond the conference room to factories and markets in Benin Republic to identify practical solutions to challenges confronting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in West Africa.

The engagements, held on July 29 and 30 in Cotonou, were part of activities lined up for the ongoing delocalised meeting of the parliament’s Joint Committee on Administration, Finance and Budget, Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research, Industry and Private Sector, and Public Accounts.

The lawmakers first visited LES JUS TILLOU, a pineapple juice processing factory, where the founder, Mrs Guedegbe Marcos, decried the difficulties of trading within the ECOWAS region.

Marcos told the parliamentarians that despite the bloc’s commitment to free movement of goods and services, exporting products to neighbouring countries such as Nigeria and Ghana was more difficult than shipping to Canada and Europe due to bureaucratic bottlenecks and trade restrictions.

She said the factory was established with a loan of nearly four billion CFA francs from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, but now requires an additional one billion CFA francs to expand production and improve packaging to meet growing demand.

According to her, the company’s products enjoy strong demand within and outside Africa, but numerous barriers to intra-regional trade continue to limit its growth.

She described the ECOWAS principle of free movement of people, goods and services as a vision yet to be fully realised, urging regional leaders to match policy commitments with concrete action.

Responding, members of the parliament assured the entrepreneur that the concerns raised would be incorporated into their deliberations and discussed with member states to improve implementation of regional trade protocols.

The lawmakers also toured the Glo-Djigbe Industrial Zone, a major industrial hub located about 45 kilometres from the Port of Cotonou and developed through a partnership between the Government of Benin and ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms.

The industrial park hosts manufacturing and processing companies in textiles, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, electric mobility, cashew and soya processing, reflecting Benin’s industrialisation drive.

At a town hall meeting held at the KP3 Market in Cotonou, traders from across the sub-region lamented harassment, multiple checkpoints, corruption at border posts and inconsistent customs procedures, which they said continue to frustrate cross-border trade.

Women traders also decried difficulties in accessing finance, saying many financial institutions were reluctant to support female entrepreneurs despite their significant contribution to regional commerce.

Participants called on ECOWAS to harmonise customs charges and border procedures to ease trade and encourage more businesses to transition from the informal to the formal sector.

After listening to their submissions, the parliamentarians pledged to present the concerns to relevant authorities and advocate reforms that would eliminate barriers limiting the growth of MSMEs.

The lawmakers said creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive is essential to reducing poverty, creating jobs and addressing insecurity across West Africa, stressing that obstacles preventing full implementation of regional trade agreements must be urgently dismantled.