The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission experts receive training to improve coordination towards accelerated reform of digital trade

ECOWAS, with the support of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), organized an e-trade reform tracker (eTRT) training in Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday 14th July, 2025.

The eTRT is an innovative digital tool that will support implementing agencies in tracking progress, coordinating actions, and enhancing accountability in the implementation of e-commerce reforms.

In his remarks at the opening ceremony of the training, Mr. Kolawole Sofola, Director of Trade at ECOWAS Commission, on behalf of Madame Massandjé TOURE-LITSE, ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture,  stated that this session offers a hands-on opportunity to explore how the Tracker works, how it can be used to streamline internal and inter-departmental coordination, and how it can help generate reliable data for monitoring and evaluation. This will be especially valuable as ECOWAS moves toward the operationalization of the Regional E-Commerce Committee, which will serve as the broader governance platform for the regional e-commerce agenda.

“I encourage all participants, particularly our focal points from key implementing directorates and agencies, to engage actively, ask questions, and explore how the tool can be applied within your respective mandates. I am confident that today’s training will equip us with a shared understanding of how to work smarter, together, to deliver the ambitions of the ECOWAS E-Commerce strategy”.

The objective of the E-Trade Reform Tracker training and workshop was to familiarize key directorates in the ECOWAS Commission with the structure and functionalities of the eTRT, promote utilization of the eTRT in the regular follow-up of the ECOWAS ECS implementation, and strengthen coordination of the implementation of the ECS.

The training was conducted for the ECOWAS internal working group on e-commerce with the following key agencies and directorates from the ECOWAS Commission in attendance: Directorates of Trade, Free Movement of Persons and Migration, Customs Union and Taxation, Private Sector, Macroeconomic Stability and Multilateral Surveillance, Communications,  as well as the ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority, the ECOWAS Gender Development Center and the ECOWAS Youth and Sports Center who were in attendance.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).