The ECOWAS Commission in collaboration with AUDA-NEPAD, CILSS and WACTAF, commence a data-gathering project titled “ECOWAS Informal Cross-border Trade (Eco-ICBT)” to collect reliable data on informal trade across the continent.
An expected outcome of the survey is to ascertain the real level of intra-regional trade to inform policy decisions, strategies and other trade actions. The Commission opines that the value and volume of informal intra-Africa trade far exceed recorded figures by Customs at various border points on West Africa’s corridors.
“The official intra-regional trade figure is usually between 12percent and 14percent and we have about 60-80percent unaccounted for. It means that the figures we give about our trade across Africa are inaccurate,” Christopher Mensah-Yawson, Programme Officer for Trade and Development, ECOWAS Commission, tells Single African Market at a data collection capacity building workshop.
“We need to augment whatever we obtain from the formal sector which can be accessed through the records of Customs and statistics records with that of the informal sector. That’s how we can get actual data on trade flows,” he adds.A major concern of the governments of ECOWAS nations and the Sahel region is how they can increase the volumes and values of trade, particularly in agricultural products, at the regional level.
According to ECOWAS, Customs officials at border points are mostly interested in goods that gets to them without the proper records.Kisa Nkhoma, Focal Person for Move Africa Border Initiative, AUDA-NEPAD, says her office will strengthen ECOWAS through the Eco-ICBT project as part of efforts to formalize trade across the region.
She says: “Our relationship is stemming from the common position of having formal traders not missing out, and getting informal traders formalized.There are so many issues that make informal traders not wanting to be formalized; they might include taxes that can affect their margins considering their low volumes of trade.”
According to members of the ECO-ICBT project unrecorded trade data, mostly on agricultural products, is denying opportunity to traders and impedes the revenue mobilization efforts of member states.
ECOWAS and its partners including AUDA-NEPAD and AfCFTA Secretariat say they are poised to assist the region to mobilize the right data and also encourage more informal traders to formalize their activities to enjoy the benefits of formalized trading across borders.
Informal traders were advised at the workshop to register with business associations in order to be guided and to ensure their access to existing opportunities.
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