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Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Togo meet in Accra, Ghana for three days to explore ways of pulling down trade barriers More efficient ways through which trade between people in Ghana , Togo , Republic of Benin and Nigeria can thrive have been developed by entrepreneurs, captains of industries and government delegates of the four countries at a summit held Monday October 5 to 7, this year in Accra .

The summit with the  theme –‘Breaking Barriers and Partnering to optimise Trade Potentials, organised by Michael Ajayi of Vintage Visions Limited, exposed the various issues which have been limiting trade between the four countries. Such barriers include protectionist laws of the governments of these countries such as import prohibition by Nigeria and a policy by Ghana requesting foreign businesses to have minimum capital requirement of $300,000 before being allowed to do business. Another is the activities of corrupt customs, immigration and police officers at the borders of the four countries.
As explained by the government delegates, these protectionist trade laws are meant to guard against goods and foreigners outside the West African sub-region from dominating their markets. However not having clear-cut exemption for citizens of the Economic Communities of West African States (ECOWAS) has been having counter productive effect on business growth between the countries in the sub-region. 
The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) specifies free movement of citizens and goods produced in the ECOWAS states to any country within the sub-region. But the various governments have often not given consideration to these. Representatives of the private sector in the four countries therefore explored the possibilities of putting pressures on their various governments to soften or remove all barriers to trade/investments by ECOWAS citizens in their territories. Plans on how the business community in each of the four countries would influence government policies to suit private sector interest ultimately for public benefit are being drawn.
Business operators have been asked to come out with modalities to set up surveillance and monitoring points at their countries’ borders which the World Bank has proposed to finance. In line with that, suggestions were made to set up websites that business operators who have been unduly harassed at the borders could send reports to. These reports would then be given to the press to be published. The aim is to get the attention of the authorities of the country concerned to resolve the issue in order to avoid embarrassment.
Another issue to be addressed by the business community is intensifying ongoing inter-governmental effort for socio-economic integration along the Ghana-Togo-Benin-Nigeria corridor. One of this is the speeding up of the introduction of a common currency for the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ). Earlier this year, representatives of the heads of governments of WAMZ at a meeting in Abuja reaffirmed their commitment to the project. But WAMZ has been mandated to collaborate with financial agencies and institutions in order to ensure that the objectives of trade and financial integration are realised before the commencement of the union on or before January 1, 2015. 
To concretise this objective, the ECOWAS-WAMI Joint Task Force on Trade related issues has been established. It is to ensure that member states fully implement regional decisions relating to trade as well as benefit from assistance in addressing policy gaps whenever they are identified.
At the summit, the business community of the four countries was made to understand that it has a role to play in ensuring that progress was made by their governments to actualise this. Delegates were urged to ensure their countries establish financial intelligence units to reinforce fiscal discipline and credibility of monetary policy. All these are aimed at quickening the launching of a common currency for the sub-region which would facilitate trade for the business community. It would also improve the operations of financial institutions to ease transactions in the sub-region.
Need for uniform legislation which includes confiscation of proceeds of crime law in particular was addressed. Government delegates  also stated that their countries were setting up task forces to ascertain that the goods produced within West Africa particularly the Ghana-Togo-Benin-Nigeria were allowed free passage and those produced outside the sub-region that have been banned by their governments are not allowed. The member states have also been urged to constitute joint law enforcement task teams to investigate complex cases. The joint task force would be able to ascertain with the representatives of the country concerned that the goods were actually made in the country.
The security agencies in the four countries have been urged to have regular threat assessment to identify criminal organisations, locales operations, transiting flows, modus operandi, remittance patterns and criminal tools. A forum to bring together high commissioners, comptroller generals of immigration, customs and police chiefs of the four countries on a regular basis has been proffered. The purpose would be to constantly tackle issues that create barriers to trade and other multilateral issues which the representatives would take back to their various governments.
Hanna Tetteh, Ghana ’s minister of trade noted that most of the restrictions on trade with other countries are caused by some individuals who mount pressure or lobby their governments to ban importation of goods to protect their own business interests. But when executives from various countries are appointed or groups set up as decided at the summit, these people would represent ECOWAS interests in their various countries. They would be able to give their governments a broader perspective on trade and investment issues.
The various countries were urged to open up to competition so as to boost entrepreneurial initiatives to take advantage of the huge market possibilities if goods are allowed to move freely in all four countries. Altogether, the four countries have a population of almost 180 million. Nigeria , with a population of 140 million is the highest, while Ghana has 23.4 million; Togo has 7 million and Benin Republic 8.5 million.
Though Nigeria has the largest market potential as a result of the population, the other three countries particularly Ghana has minimal infrastructural challenges. The three countries also have market potential. Many of the Nigerian manufacturers at the summit expressed their intention to set up production base in Ghana . 
Solomon Onafowokan, president of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the summit said it made good business sense for any manufacturer to set up a production division in another West African country with less production cost and also to take advantage of the ECOWAS treaty. He said, “If a company has 100 percent production capacity in Nigeria and 20 percent of its market is in Ghana , he can transfer the 20 percent production to Ghana , so as to reduce cost of production. It will save cost as huge investment in generator and fuelling would be saved.”
He said nothing could be done to address this trend of Nigerian manufacturing companies setting up in other countries until the government addresses our power problem because it is so fundamental and is a basic requirement of any industrial development. He said, “Currently, Nigeria manufacturers are producing at 40 per cent higher than Ghana and Togo . Of course, they would have moved their entire production to Ghana had it not been cost of transporting the goods to the Nigerian market.”
For the other three countries, the huge Nigeria market which is about seven times and more of the other three countries has been the main attraction Nigeria has. Since production costs in their countries are lower, bringing goods to sell in Nigeria is an advantage.