At the 2025 West Africa Economic Summit (WAES), experts and policymakers made one message clear: the future of intra-regional trade depends on collective action. From accelerating digital identity systems to harnessing the energy of West Africa’s growing youth population and enabling robust private sector collaboration, the region must now move beyond rhetoric to reform. Integration isn’t just about movement of goods, it’s about aligning vision, unlocking potential, and reshaping the region’s place in the global economy.
A major barrier to intra-regional trade is the challenge individuals and small businesses face in verifying their identity across borders. This creates transactional friction, restricts access to formal financial services, and undermines trust in cross-border dealings.
A unified, interoperable digital identity system is widely seen as the foundation for enabling seamless trade, payment integration, and regional services.
According to ECOWAS reports, only 10–15 per cent of West African trade is intra-regional. However, informal commerce could significantly boost this figure. Intra-ECOWAS trade currently averages around USD 208 billion annually, with Nigeria contributing approximately 76 per cent of regional flows. Regional bodies like ECOWAS, WAEMU, and initiatives such as the West African Competitiveness Observatory are working to reduce trade barriers and streamline customs procedures.
These issues took center stage at the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit (WAES), sparking deeper dialogue on the region’s trade realities.
As part of efforts to drive sustainable economic development, adequate identity has been recognised as a vital enabler of financial inclusion, trade, and growth across West Africa.
A unified digital identity system is not just a technological upgrade. It’s an economic and developmental necessity. It enables citizens to move across borders with a recognised, verifiable identity, allowing them to trade, access services, and build trust in new markets. By making informal activity visible, reducing fraud, and unlocking access to financial services, logistics, and government programs, digital identity lays the groundwork for inclusive and resilient regional growth.
Nigeria, through its National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), has successfully enrolled over 120 million citizens into the National Identification Number (NIN) system. Thanks to recent technological advancements and strategic partnerships, longstanding challenges around data harmonisation and duplication have been largely resolved.
Similarly, Ghana’s digital identity system overseen by the National Identification Authority is now deeply embedded in key sectors such as banking, elections, and public services. Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal have also advanced significantly, implementing biometric ID systems that are linked to social welfare programs.
In contrast, countries like Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia continue to struggle with low identity coverage and limited interoperability. These disparities hinder regional trade, restrict the free movement of people, and undermine mutual trust among states. For genuine regional integration to be achieved, identity systems must be digital, trustworthy, and interoperable across borders.
The Director-general/CEO of Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. (Dr.) Abisoye Coker-Odusote, emphasised that realising the full benefits of intra-African trade and regional development hinges on a unified digital identity strategy for West Africa.
She stressed that governments across the region must treat digital identity as essential infrastructure on par with roads, ports, and electricity. This involves dedicating national budgets to identity initiatives, integrating identity systems into trade and financial frameworks, and establishing legal structures that support the mutual recognition of credentials across borders.
Dr. Coker-Odusote also highlighted the need for stronger collaboration among identity management bodies such as Nigeria’s NIMC, Ghana’s NIA, and their regional peers. Achieving interoperability, she noted, will require the adoption of common technical standards, alignment of enrolment processes, and support for countries still developing their identity systems through shared expertise and capacity-building efforts.
According to her, regional bodies such as ECOWAS and WAEMU must take the lead in embedding digital identity into West Africa’s broader integration agenda. She recommended the creation of a West African Digital Identity Working Group, the adoption of a regional digital ID charter, and strategic investment in infrastructure to enable seamless cross-border identity verification, critical for trade, migration, and security.
Coker-Odusote also highlighted the crucial role of the private sector, especially banks, Fintechs, telecoms, and logistics firms in driving adoption.
“ By integrating digital ID into their onboarding processes, building digital trust ecosystems, and offering tailored, inclusive services, these sectors can help bring newly identified individuals and small traders into the formal economy.”
Beyond institutions, Dr. Odusote called on civil society, local communities, and traditional leaders to champion grassroots awareness and acceptance. Through community engagement, digital literacy campaigns, and trusted local networks, these actors can help address resistance, increase uptake, and ensure inclusion, particularly for women, the unbanked, and undocumented populations.
“We must move from fragmented national systems to a unified regional identity framework—one that empowers our people to trade, transact, travel, and transform their lives. Let us not leave this challenge for future generations. The time for decisive, collective action is now. The future of West Africa’s economy depends on it.” She stated
Echoing this urgency, President Bola Tinubu, underlined the need for deeper regional integration, coordinated policies, and better capital mobilisation to unlock West Africa’s economic potential.
While describing the region as one of the world’s last great economic frontiers, Mr. President cautioned that opportunity alone is not enough. “We must earn transformation through vision, integration, coherent policy, collaboration, and investment,” he asserted.
President Tinubu pointed out that intra-regional trade remains below 10 per cent , primarily due to poor coordination among member states. “The global economy won’t wait for West Africa to align neither should we,” he warned.
To move the region forward, Tinubu emphasised the need to strengthen regional value chains, improve infrastructure ,innovation, and enterprise development to harness the region’s youthful population.
He cited projects like the Lagos-Abidjan Highway and the West African Power Pool as evidence of what regional cooperation can achieve, but noted that more must be done to translate commitments into tangible results. “We need to move from statements to solutions, from frameworks to functional systems,” he said.
Finally, President Tinubu called for a shift from mere resource extraction to value-added production. “The era of pit to port must end,” he declared, urging investment in local processing and regional manufacturing to turn West Africa’s mineral wealth into jobs, technology, and industrial growth.
He concluded with a call for practical outcomes: “Let us leave this summit not with promises, but with actionable steps to drive trade, innovation, and shared prosperity across our region.”
On her part, the Director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), urged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to fully implement the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and accelerate regional integration efforts.
She highlighted the urgent need for ECOWAS to lower trade costs, which she identified as among the highest globally.
Okonjo-Iweala emphasised, “The future of trade lies in services, digital innovation, and green growth. With a young, educated, and connected population, flourishing tech startups, and abundant renewable energy resources, West Africa is well positioned, if only the right enabling environment is created.”
She further stressed the importance of building manufacturing capacity, noting that gatherings like this summit play a vital role. “If each country operates in isolation, it will be difficult to develop efficient value chains capable of attracting the investment needed for sustainable growth,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala noted that by focusing on sub-regional value chains, ECOWAS can expand market size and economies of scale, making the region far more attractive to investors.
She pointed to the pharmaceutical sector as a key opportunity, recalling how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed Africa’s vulnerability when the continent was sidelined in vaccine distribution. This highlighted the urgent need to increase local pharmaceutical production.
Senegal’s Institut Pasteur de Dakar stands out as a potential vaccine hub, while other parts of the pharmaceutical value chain; such as research, manufacturing, and fill-and-finish operations could be developed in neighboring countries. In fact, Nigeria is already laying the groundwork for parts of this ecosystem.
Okonjo-Iweala also emphasised the importance of leveraging West Africa’s green advantages by expanding solar and wind energy capacity to support the processing of critical minerals within the sub-region.
She challenged the region to move further up the electric value chain by producing battery components and even automobiles. In the services sector, tech companies like Nigeria’s Junior and Flutterwave have successfully expanded across borders, setting examples for others to follow. She also encouraged growing sub-regional trade and tourism driven by cultural industries.
To realise these ambitions and build robust regional value chains, Okonjo-Iweala stressed that ECOWAS must tackle existing trade barriers, non-tariff obstacles, and gaps in physical, regulatory, and digital infrastructure that have long hindered trade across West Africa and the continent as a whole.
“The pharmaceutical industry is one promising sector, and the COVID-19 pandemic experience of being bumped to the back of the queue for vaccines was a reminder of why the continent needs to produce more pharmaceutical products at home.
“We should also seek to leverage our green comparative advantage by building out solar and wind energy capacity to power critical minerals processing in the sub-region.
“Can we move up the electric value chain and start making battery components and even automobiles? In the services space, we have seen some tech companies like Junior and Flutterwave of Nigeria start to operate across borders in the region, showing the way for others. We could also aim to have more sub-regional trade and tourism that is driven by the cultural industries.” She stated.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, called for West Africa to “reset its economic vision,” emphasiing the need to build on existing frameworks to boost growth and development.
He highlighted the region’s achievements, including freedom of movement and frameworks supporting trade, electricity pooling, and transport corridor integration. Tuggar also pointed to West Africa’s rich history of trade and innovation, referencing historic markets like Salaga, Katsina, and Kano as long-standing economic hubs.
However, he expressed concern that despite the region’s vast potential, only 8.6 percent of its $166 billion exports in 2024 stayed within West Africa. Tuggar attributed this to heavy dependence on external partners and the continued export of unprocessed raw materials.
We’ve got the edge. Get real-time reports, breaking scoops, and exclusive angles delivered straight to your phone. Don’t settle for stale news. Join LEADERSHIP NEWS on WhatsApp for 24/7 updates →
Join Our WhatsApp Channel
