ECOWAS, GIZ Training For Journalists Ends With Call On them To Champion Trade Facilitation
Princess-Ekwi Ajide Abuja
Reports have shown a continued shrink of trade volume in Africa despite efforts by regional governments to facilitate trade relations in the continent.
Also, although progress has been recorded in interregional relations with little or no gain in its trade volumes, Africa, accounts for only 15 percent of trade since the formation of the Economic Community of West African States in 1975.
This no doubt, was the reason World Bank, GIZ, and ECOWAS brought journalists from different media backgrounds across the ECOWAS member states to the Nigeria’s capital, Abuja to intimate them about the efforts of ECOWAS at facilitating trade in the continent and boosting their capacity to report trade in the region especially the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
Speaking on behalf of the organisers at the four dayevent, ECOWAS Programme Officer, Informal Trade and Competition, Dr. Seydou Sacko and GIZ head of Component Trade Corridors and Transit, Trade Facilitation West Africa Programme, Bernard Tayoh stressed that it is crucial that all states and non-state actors in trade set a target to meet so as to ensure free movement of goods in the region under the new trade agreement and other social economic development.
Trade experts and facilitators at the event emphasized the need for countries to eliminate trade barriers to provide opportunities among women and youths for economic growth.
All participants at the event were later awarded certificates of participation and urged to judiciously utilize their acquired knowledge in their reportage of trade in the region.
