Yusuf Tuggar, the Chairman of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers and Nigeria’s Minister of International Affairs, has raised alarm over the low degree of commerce amongst West African nations, revealing that solely 8.6 per cent of the area’s $166 billion value of exports in 2024 had been traded inside its borders.
Talking on the opening session of the West Africa Financial Summit (WAES) 2025, Tuggar decried the area’s continued dependence on exterior companions for each imports and exports, warning that such a commerce construction is “untenable” for long-term financial prosperity.
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“Allow us to not overlook that in 2024, West Africa exported items valued at over $166 billion. But solely 8.6 p.c of that commerce remained inside our borders,” Tuggar mentioned.
He confused that whereas nations within the area proceed to export largely unprocessed uncooked supplies, they continue to be closely reliant on manufactured imports — significantly equipment and shopper items — from China, India, the USA, and the European Union.
“This isn’t merely a matter of capability, however of orientation,” he famous. “We should start to look inward, to commerce amongst ourselves, and to develop our personal industries that add worth and create jobs.”
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The summit, themed Reset the Imaginative and prescient for the Financial Way forward for the West Africa Area, goals to catalyse contemporary methods to deepen integration, increase industrialisation, and unlock the financial potential of the subregion.
Tuggar referred to as for a brand new regional concentrate on constructing provide chains, vitality networks, and digital frameworks that reduce throughout borders, stressing that “West Africa already has the constructing blocks — freedom of motion, a shared commerce facilitation framework, pooled electrical energy initiatives, and rising transport corridors.”
The precedence, he argued, must be to remodel these constructions into tangible financial outcomes.
“In our historical past, West Africa has all the time traded — from the good markets of Salaga, Katsina, and Kano to at this time’s borderless casual networks,” he mentioned. “However an excessive amount of of that vitality remains to be casual, bypassing regulation and scale. We should discover methods to combine these sectors into the formal economic system, to unleash the complete advantages of scale, innovation, and entry to finance.”
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In line with the diplomat, the area’s ample mineral wealth, agricultural potential, and rising youthful inhabitants supply a basis for inclusive progress, particularly if native industries may be empowered by means of innovation, processing capability, and smarter commerce insurance policies.
He mentioned the summit was a possibility not only for coverage dialogue, however for motion.
“Our purpose right here is to construct on what we’ve got and discover new methods so as to add momentum to our pursuit of peace, stability, prosperity, and progress. The time to take management of our financial future is now,” he declared.
