Dismantle Trade Barriers, Reduce Costs, Okonjo-Iweala Charges African Leaders
In a keynote address at the West Africa Economic Summit (WAES), World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has called on West African leaders to dismantle trade barriers, reduce costs, and think regionally to unlock the subregion’s vast economic potential.
Speaking at the summit, held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala emphasized the need for regional integration, value chain development, and innovation to drive growth and job creation for West Africa’s nearly 460 million people, half of whom are under the age of 18.
“The time has come for member states to act collectively to build regional economic strength,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “If each of our countries works alone, it is unlikely that we will be able to build efficient value chains or attract the investment we need. But if ECOWAS can think in terms of subregional value chains and markets, our economies become bigger and more attractive to investors.”
The WTO Director-General highlighted the region’s rich critical mineral and energy resources, as well as its thriving creative industries, including music, literature, fashion, and food. She also praised ECOWAS for being the first bloc to support her candidacy for the WTO leadership.
Okonjo-Iweala identified pharmaceutical manufacturing as a promising sector, citing Senegal’s Institut Pasteur de Dakar as a potential hub for vaccine production. She also called for harnessing solar and wind energy to power local processing of critical minerals and highlighted the potential for West Africa to move up the electric value chain, including battery components and automobile manufacturing.
However, she warned that achieving these goals would require tackling longstanding structural barriers, including tariff and non-tariff frictions, and closing physical, regulatory, and digital infrastructure gaps that have historically held back trade in West Africa.
President Bola Tinubu, who convened the summit in his capacity as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, also called for deeper regional value chains and an end to the export of unprocessed raw materials.
“The era of warm pit to the port must end,” Tinubu said. “We must turn our mineral wealth into domestic economic value, jobs, technology, and manufacturing.”
The summit, which precedes the 67th Ordinary Session of ECOWAS, brought together presidents from Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, The Gambia, Benin, Togo, and Guinea-Bissau, alongside ministers of finance, trade, infrastructure, and foreign affairs from ECOWAS Member States.
Private sector leaders, development partners, and policy experts also participated in the summit, with expectations high for actionable outcomes that can fast-track West Africa’s integration agenda, regarded as critical to regional peace, security, and shared prosperity.
