On 26 October 2026, the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents (Accra Convention) was opened for signature in Accra, Ghana. Twenty-six countries signed the Convention, including nine ECOWAS Member States, namely Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo, underscoring regional commitment to facilitating trade and economic integration. Ahead of the ceremony, on 7 October 2026, the ECOWAS Commission, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry of Ghana and the UNCITRAL Secretariat, organised a virtual sensitisation session for Member States on the Convention’s key provisions and relevance to regional trade facilitation.

The Accra Convention provides for a single negotiable cargo document, in paper or electronic form, covering goods moved across transport modes and national borders. Effectively implemented, it could simplify documentation, ease information exchange, speed the movement of goods along corridors and support more efficient multimodal transport. The Convention can complement ongoing regional initiatives to consolidate the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), strengthen customs cooperation and improve the efficiency of transit operations. It could also reinforce the implementation of the ECOWAS Transit Procedure (Supplementary Act A/SA.2/12/21) and the Interconnected System for the Management of Goods in Transit (SIGMAT), which supports the electronic exchange of transit information among customs administrations.

The ECOWAS Commission, represented at the ceremony by Mr. Kolawole SOFOLA, Director of Trade, on behalf of Mr. Dephue Yenpea ZUO, Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, also took part in the UNCITRAL60 Symposium. Mr. SOFOLA served as a panelist during Session II, entitled “Trade Facilitation and Regional Connectivity, Corridors, the AfCFTA and Negotiable Cargo Documents”. The session brought together representatives of key continental and international institutions, including the World Customs Organization (WCO), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the Kenya Maritime Authority.

Discussions during the symposium highlighted the importance of addressing non-tariff barriers, including excessive documentation, repeated border checks, administrative delays and inefficiencies along regional transport corridors. These raise trade costs and undermine competitiveness, particularly for businesses operating across multiple borders and transport modes.

Participants stressed the need to align the Convention with existing trade facilitation frameworks, including the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation and the AfCFTA, particularly its work on customs cooperation, transit and digital trade. Coordinated implementation involving national institutions, National Trade Facilitation Committees, Regional Economic Communities and continental partners was seen as essential to delivering tangible benefits for traders and transport operators.

For ECOWAS, advancing the Convention’s objectives would contribute to reducing the time and cost of cross-border trade, strengthening regional value chains, improving access to markets and promoting the free movement of goods across the Community. The Commission’s participation in the signing ceremony and symposium reflects its commitment to practical solutions that facilitate intra-regional trade, deepen integration and support AfCFTA implementation, and to cooperation among Member States and development partners in building a more connected, efficient and competitive West African regional market.