Along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor — one of West Africa's most vital commercial lifelines threading through five nations — the gap between the promise of free movement and the reality of daily friction has grown too wide to ignore. In mid-August, the ECOWAS Commission convened border officials, traders, and ministry representatives at the Togo-Ghana crossing to confront what decades of protocols have failed to resolve: the queues, the harassment, and the quiet economic toll borne most heavily by women and young traders. The gathering produced a roadmap and renewed commitments, but the deeper que
ECOWAS Pushes to Cut Border Delays on Key West African Trade Route
Women and young traders face gender-based violence and harassment at border crossings, limiting their economic participation and movement rights.