A training workshop took place on Wednesday 15 October 2025 in Lomé on the Free Trade digital application. This workshop was organized by the West African Association for Cross-Border Trade in Food, Agro-Sylvo-Pastoral and Fishery Products (AOCTAH).

The training is part of the Program of ECOWAS agricultural trade. This application and its web interface aim to digitize and boost the resolution of trade barriers in real time in the region. Six countries recognized for the intensity and effectiveness of their road fluidity, are taking part in this first phase. It is Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Conakry, Togo.

Motchosso Matitoma, Secretary General of AOCTAH, indicated that the “Free Trade” platform was developed with the technical and financial support of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). It is positioned as an essential instrument for lifting non-tariff barriers, accelerate regional economic integration and Ensuring a fairer and more transparent business environment for all actors in West Africa. According to the SG, “the platform is not an isolated innovation, but the improvement of an existing mechanism of monitoring and resolving trade barriers, based on legal framework of the ECOWAS Liberalization Scheme and the principles of the Zone African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA)”.

The major innovation of “Free Trade” lies in its ability to allow denunciation and the resolution in real time of illicit practices such as “snowshoes” or other obstacles. Contrary to platforms In the past where actors filed their problems without the certainty of solution, “Free Trade” ensures active monitoring. The aim is to provide States with reliable data to make “arrangements appropriate in view of the difficulties faced by women and young people in cross-border trade.”