Ousainou Senghore was speaking with The Point at the 4th General Assembly/Annual General Meeting of the Ecowas TPO Network hosted by The Gambia.
The three-day AGM held at the Bakadaji Hotel, critically looked at the trade barriers and identified best solutions to uplifting those barriers to enable easy and smooth trade amongst Ecowas countries
Senghore indicated that they are also looking at introducing an Ecowas e-platform that they can use to trade among Ecowas countries.
“The TPOs are institutions set up by their respective governments for the promotion, facilitation and development of exports which started four years ago as an association.”
The ultimate objective of the TPO, he noted, is to drive trade within West Africa and beyond and to ensure that made in Ecowas goods are exported amongst Ecowas countries easily without barriers and tariffs that would discourage production in West Africa.
He highlighted that as a region there is a need for joint efforts, saying even industrialisation would be a challenged ‘if we do not come together’.
“If you look at the European Union, what gives them strength is togetherness they have and they trade easily amongst them in terms of goods and even people, that have strengthened them as a block.”
Similarly, he advised that ‘if Ecowas countries too want to register success’ there is a need for them to come together and trade as a team.
