By Tracy Abena Dompreh
Trademark Africa, a not-for-profit organization leading intra-African trade, is championing capacity building for businesses along the Lagos Abidjan Corridor to implement standards and obtain a Certificate of Conformity. It is also leading awareness creation of existing standards key for businesses to access markets which facilitates movement of products across borders. This came up during a three day Abidjan–Lagos Corridor Sanitary and Phytosanitary/Technical Barriers to Trade Forum, in Accra. The meeting sought to address quality challenges affecting trade competitiveness along West Africa’s busiest trade route.
About SPS/TBT Abidjan–Lagos Corridor Forum
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The three-day Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS)/Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), which took place in Accra-Ghana from 19 to 21 November 2025, brought together government officials, private sector representatives, and regional institutions from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and the East African Community (EAC). The Accra meeting, conducted diagnostic and Gap Analysis of existing Standards and SPS capacities, assessed Border Agency Coordination and proposed improvements for harmonised implementation of protocols. It also identified opportunities for Policy and Regulatory Alignment of national frameworks with regional (ECOWAS) and continental (AfCTFA) protocols, facilitated knowledge Exchange and Benchmarking, as well as drew lessons from the ECOWAS benchmarking mission to the East African Community (EAC) regarding standards harmonisation and OSBP operations and also ensured Private Sector Engagement by capturing insights from exporters, SMEs, women, and youth-led enterprises to develop practical and responsive interventions.
TMA leads harmonization standards in ECOWAS region
Speaking to journalists, Dr. Andrew Edewa, Director of SPS and Standards at Trademark Africa, said efforts are underway to harmonise standards for the ECOWAS region.
“Efforts are underway to harmonise standards for the ECOWAS region. This ensures that traders do not have to comply with multiple standards for the same product, reducing costs and easing cross-border trade”
He said TMA is building the capacity of the countries on how to collaboratively assess risks for efficiency.
“If I ask you right now, why governments close the borders sometimes is to prevent diseases from coming in through imported products. So a way of doing this is also building capacity to see how to assess these risks together”.
Dr. Edewa, said TMA is working with partners to build a database where information on product requirements is shared to ease burden on traders.
“The area of information sharing is key because we need a platform where by a click of a button you should know the trading requirements. So if SMEs need to trade and they need to get their products from one country to another, you should be able to do that. They should be able to check either on their phones or through a platform where they’re able to know the trading requirements”.
He pledged TMA’s commitment to scaling up interventions in the five countries through the SQI and SPS Programme aimed at enhancing the safety, quality, and value of traded goods, and other portfolios with a particular focus on key export-oriented value chains.
Unleashing trade potential of Abidjan-Lagos Corridor
Anthe Vrijlandt, Senior Regional Director for West Africa at Trademark Africa, said the Forum is a response to the call for strategic action in West Africa, which recognizes the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor as one of the ECOWAS priorities set out in its “Vision 2050”.
“This corridor connects five key ECOWAS Member States – Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria- linking major economically dynamic cities, and is characterized as the busiest trade corridor in West Africa”.
She recalled that in 2021, ministers responsible for trade along the corridor recommended to the AfCFTA Secretariat and TradeMark Africa to conduct an assessment of the Corridor and propose interventions that would fast-track the implementation of trade facilitation initiatives under the AfCFTA framework.
“Since January 2022, TMA has conducted assessments that confirm the imperative nature of addressing the persistent trade-related challenges and gaps. We must address these challenges to realize the Corridor’s full trade potential and effectively leverage regional and international opportunities”.
She called for inclusive policies that promote the well-being of all women and youth led businesses.
“Ensure that every reform we design is consciously inclusive, listening to women traders and small businesses, tackling harassment and informality, and investing in skills so that youth can seize the opportunities that integrated regional markets offer”.
“Inclusive food corridors should become a trademark of West Africa: corridors where food moves quickly, safely and affordably, and where the benefits are widely shared” she added.
She pledged the preparedness of TMA to collaborate with ECOWAS, development partners, governments and the private sector to achieve measurable progress for traders, Governments and communities across West Africa.
Private sector involvement
Anthony Morrison, Chief Executive of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, mentioned that the role of the private sector in trade liberalization scheme is key.
“Authority also has standards, which we, the private sector, have to subscribe to. The role of the private sector is to ensure that we are meeting national standards and protocol that has been assigned and also meeting the West Africa or the Subregional protocols”.
He said a major challenge facing cross border trade in West Africa is language which often creates challenges around protocols, language and data sharing and his outfit is running a programme to address.
“We have actually trained over 600 SMEs in cross-border trade, some of the issues that we encounter are the language, the data, and the protocols, and sometimes it takes a longer time for you to cross border because information have to come from the capital city to the border”
Conclusion
Recommendations from the meeting are expected to be consolidated into the Corridor SPS/TBT Action Roadmap (2025–2027), which is essential to strengthen SPS/TBT capacities, facilities, and processes to facilitate smoother and faster border clearance of goods.
