By Tracy Abena Dompreh
The ECOWAS Commission and TradeMark Africa, TMA, have met in Accra, to strengthen the trade environment along the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor. The meeting also assessed Border Agency Coordination as well as identifying opportunities for Policy and Regulatory Alignment of national frameworks with ECOWAS and the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, protocols.
The three-day Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Sanitary and Phytosanitary/Technical Barriers to Trade Forum which took place from 19th to 21st November 2025, was with support from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. It brought together representatives from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and other key regional bodies to address Standards and SPS challenges along the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor, which carries nearly two-thirds of regional commerce.
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Speaking to journalists, Anthe Vrijlandt, Senior Regional Director for West Africa at Trademark Africa, said trade harmonization and standardization ensures the free movement of food across borders.
She said technical barriers continue to disrupt cross-border trade, underscoring the importance of a unified regional effort in advancing Africa’s integration agenda. She stressed that TMA’s partnership with ECOWAS will drive the needed reforms.
“When traders want to go across borders, they still face a lot of technical barriers. Often related to food safety, plant health and their solutions. What we want is real action on the ground that change the way traders can move their goods across borders”.
Principal Programme Officer for Quality and Standards at the ECOWAS Commission, Kwasi Midae, noted that duplication of requirements remains a major challenge for the private sector along the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor. He said ECOWAS and its partners are working to streamline procedures to ease the burden on businesses.
“When products are produced in Ghana, for example, and it moves to Togo or Côte D’ivoire the product must be tested. That brings duplication, costs money and makes goods stay at the borders till the test results get out before customs can release the goods to the other countries. This is a big challenge for traders and it can be overcome through standard harmonization”
He said ECOWAS has set up a committee made up of all member states to harmonize standards.
Dr. Andrew Edewa, Director, SPS and Standards at Trademark Africa, said trade harmonization is key to improving competitiveness of products.
“It’s not that the products are of less quality, but the inability to demonstrate that they comply with the various quality standards and other requirements which have been established to assure the markets that these products are safe”
He said the forum’s interventions, which includes awareness creation and capacity building will open up new economic opportunities for SMEs, women traders, and businesses across the sub-region.
“The first aspect is to be able to meet the standards, because if you don’t meet them, you cannot access markets, so awareness is one big thing we are doing. Capacity building is the second thing”.
He added “the third intervention that we are looking at is to deal with the challenge where importing countries refuse to assemble certificates. There are cases where you have a certificate, but the goods cannot cross the border, so we are having an intervention with the governments”.
Dr. Edewa, said TMA will continue to work with donor partners to ensure that farmers, women enterprises and all others benefit from the interventions.
Anthony Morrison, Chief Executive of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana highlighted challenges confronting the private sector. He noted the vital role of agribusinesses in meeting national standards to ensure safer and more competitive trade.
“From the Chamber of Agribusiness and agribusiness perspective, where we do agriculture and food trade is to make sure that we enhance our business penetration within West Africa and also within the EU, most importantly, it addresses the issues of quality”.
“If we are really looking at developing some form of a competitive advantage, we need to make sure that we are meeting the standards” he added.
About TradeMark Africa
Founded in 2010, TradeMark Africa is a leading African Aid-for-Trade organisation, with a mission to grow intra-African trade, increase Africa’s share in global trade, and ensure trade is more pro-poor and environmentally sustainable.
Amongst its flagship programmes, TMA has supported the roll-out of electronic cargo tracking systems that are especially important for landlocked countries, as their goods must transit through neighbouring territories. This is backed by digital customs systems that have cut clearance times, giving businesses the predictability needed to invest and export. It is building on the success of its One Stop Border Posts: in East Africa using the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol for compliant cargo to move with minimal interruption from origin to destination.
