The Trade Facilitation in West Africa Programme (TFWA) has supported ECOWAS in developing the ECOWAS Empowerment Program for NTFCs in collaboration with UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). 

The main objective of this training programme is to contribute to the regional approach and activities towards the West Africa National Trade Facilitation Committees (NTFCs) and to strengthening their roles and capacities as effective coordinating entities of trade facilitation reforms and lead agents of change. It participates in the integration of practices regarding TF governance within ECOWAS’ NTFCs, and further operationalization of the ECOWAS Regional Trade Facilitation Committee (RTFC) Action Plan.

The following sessions will be conducted during the workshop: 

• Session 1: Trade Facilitation and Regional Integration in ECOWAS
• Session 2: Promoting Transparency and Client-Centric Trade Facilitation Tools in ECOWAS
• Session 3: ECOWAS Transit and Corridor Monitoring 

These sessions are strategically designed to complement the ECOWAS Online Empowerment Programme for NTFCs, encouraging engagement through proposals, identifying opportunities to implement the ECOWAS regional trade facilitation initiatives and instruments, and supporting intra-regional integration of trade facilitation reforms undertaken by NTFCs. 

The ECOWAS Empowerment Programme for NTFCs was officially launched during the 2nd Regional Trade Facilitation Committee on November 3rd, 2022, and is implemented in every ECOWAS Member State. 

Objectives: 

• Ensure an underlying understanding of the regional trade facilitation instruments and initiatives within ECOWAS. 
• Aid NTFCs in executing the ECOWAS Trade Facilitation regional strategy by conducting tailored regional webinars. 
• Define how regional TF priorities can fit into national policy through discussion on NTFCs best practices, country experiences in regional cross-cutting issues and group work on specific aspects of the strategy.

Participating countries:  

15 ECOWAS member States and ECOWAS Commission (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo).