Regional workshop on the ECOWAS Informal Trade Regularization Support Program ECOWAS informal (PARCI/ITRSP

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is organizing a regional workshop, from 15 to 17 August 2014, in Abuja, Nigeria, to review the implementation of the ECOWAS Informal Trade Regularization Support Programme (PARCI/ITRSP) and propose solutions   to funding s and other technical challenges impacting data collection.

The three-day workshop, prepared and coordinated by the Department of Economic Affairs and Agriculture,  is bringing  together representatives of ECOWAS Commission from Trade, Customs, Agriculture and Rural Development, Research and Development Directorates, the focal points of ECOWAS Member States and experts in trade and statistics,  du Comité permanent inter-états de lutte contre la sécheresse au Sahel (CILSS) and  the West African Association for Cross-Border Trade, in Agro-forestry-pastoral and Fisheries Products  (AOCTAH/WACTAF).

At the opening ceremony on Thursday, 15 August 2024, Dr Seydou Sacko, ECOWAS Commission’s Principal Programme Officer Trade Policy, Negotiations and Trade Promotion who spoke   on behalf of, ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Ms Massandje TOURE-LITSE, recalled the need to take precise account of informal cross-border trade flows in order to present in a meaningful and appropriate way the real volume of intra-Community trade flows and  address the appropriate strategies and political decisions.

Dr Sacko called for a strengthening of collaboration between the relevant stakeholders, namely the National Statistical Institutes, Ministries in charge of Trade, Central Banks and Regional Institutions, to ensure the implementation of ITRSP, in particular the sustainable collection of data on informal cross-border trade (ITC).

Yohanna K. Zacks, representing the Federal Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment of Nigeria, said   the workshop will serve as a forum to review national efforts to collect data on informal cross-border trade in order to collectively find solutions to the challenges identified and share best practices to improve flows of Trade in the region.

In March 2012, ECOWAS adopted the Informal Trade Regularisation Support Programme (ITRSP) to help operationalize the strategy of informal trade in the region. ITRSP provides a diagnosis of informal trade in the region and proposes areas for action with a key component related to the collection of data on informal cross-border trade (TIC).

The ITRSP implemented by the Department Economic and Agricultural Affairs of ECOWAS and the CILSS through a joint Technical Secretariat, aims to help increase intra-regional trade in the construction of the common market and the reduction of poverty in the ECOWAS region.

It is structured around four outcomes: (i) reliable and up-to-date information on informal trade is available, (ii) the institutional capacity of actors involved in informal trade and their involvement in formulation, the implementation and monitoring of policies related to the development of intra-regional trade is strengthened, (iii) reforms are initiated that are essential to removing barriers to the development of formal trade, (iv) Incentives are put in place to facilitate the migration of informal sector actors to the formal sector.