{"id":1403,"date":"2025-07-28T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/?p=1403"},"modified":"2025-11-25T12:09:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T12:09:29","slug":"waes-2025-leaders-call-for-regional-coordination-fair-trade-and-local-production-to-drive-afcfta-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/2025\/07\/28\/waes-2025-leaders-call-for-regional-coordination-fair-trade-and-local-production-to-drive-afcfta-success\/","title":{"rendered":"WAES 2025: Leaders Call for Regional Coordination, Fair Trade and Local Production to Drive AfCFTA Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Montserrat||||||||” text_line_height=”1.6em” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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Policymakers and private sector leaders at the West Africa Business Summit (WAES 2025) have called for stronger coordination, practical reforms, and production-focused policies to unlock the full benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Among several strategic conversations held during the summit, one of the key panel sessions, titled \u201cOvercoming Barriers to Harnessing [\u2026]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Policymakers and private sector leaders at the West Africa Business Summit (WAES 2025) have called for stronger coordination, practical reforms, and production-focused policies to unlock the full benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Among several strategic conversations held during the summit, one of the key panel sessions, titled \u201cOvercoming Barriers to Harnessing AfCFTA for Stronger Intra-Regional Trade in West Africa\u201d, featured high-level perspectives on production, trade fairness, and cross-border coordination.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moderated by Yvonne Ike, Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Bank of America, the panel brought together distinguished voices including Nigeria\u2019s Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole; Benin\u2019s Minister of Industry and Commerce, Shadiya Alimatou Assouman; Abubakar Suleiman, MD\/CEO of Sterling Bank; Farouk Gumel, Vice Chairman of Tropical General Investments (TGI) Group; and Jubril Enakele, CEO of IRON Capital Partners.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Farouk Gumel urged stakeholders to recognise that informal systems of trade already function across the continent and must be understood rather than overridden. \u201cWe need to understand the difference between Africa and Africans. It is a tribal continent. The tribal connectivity is the driver of African trade today. So when you start to bring in paperwork and the African design which is countries and borders, you start to look at trade in a different way,\u201d he said. \u201cFree trade exists in Africa, it is not just fair.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On how to make AfCFTA work better, Gumel added: \u201cThere are no barriers. There is free trade. All we need to do is to make it fair and to make it fair, we have to talk to manufacturers. For you to have a fair African trade policy, it has to be fair to the producers- those producers create jobs. It has to be an African fair trade system policy where manufacturers, processors etc. are also factored into the conversation.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Abubakar Suleiman, CEO of Sterling Bank, called for better data and smarter digital infrastructure to support small-scale cross-border traders. \u201cThe cost of payment today causes friction in the continent,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need a framework to know all the small traders\u2014only then can you bring in incentives that would allow them to grow.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Jumoke Oduwole reinforced Nigeria\u2019s commitment to AfCFTA, noting progress on ECOWAS tariff implementation and digital trade readiness. Wrapping up the session, she made a final call for synergy:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most catalytic element for this audience is coordination. So, coordination at the national level to make sure that the implementation, the operationalisation of national and regional trade is well coordinated. As West Africa, we have to be extremely coordinated in what we\u2019re doing, how we\u2019re doing, when we\u2019re doing it, and very focused on the impact.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Closing the summit, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chair of the ECOWAS Authority and President of Nigeria, highlighted Africa\u2019s role in shaping its future through economic integration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis summit is not just an event, it is a bold step toward a prosperous, integrated West Africa powered by trade, innovation, and our most valuable asset: our people,\u201d he stated.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI invite the world to join us in building a stronger, more unified, and globally competitive West Africa.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As WAES 2025 concluded, participants agreed that the region\u2019s path to prosperity lies not only in removing trade barriers, but in creating a trade system that is inclusive, fair, and fundamentally supportive of local production and value addition. The message was clear: West Africa cannot trade what it does not produce. From smallholder farmers to industrial processors, empowering those who create products is critical to ensuring AfCFTA delivers real jobs and economic transformation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Policymakers and private sector leaders at the West Africa Business Summit (WAES 2025) have called for stronger coordination, practical reforms, and production-focused policies to unlock the full benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Among several strategic conversations held during the summit, one of the key panel sessions, titled \u201cOvercoming Barriers to Harnessing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1406,"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions\/1406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olabodeojomo.com\/tgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}