The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, through its Customs Union and Taxation Directorate, is organizing a working session on its electronic certificate of origin, abbreviated as e-CO, for the benefit of Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo.

This is part of a four-day meeting that opened on Monday, November 24, 2025, at the premises of the ECOWAS Investment and Development Bank (EBID) in Lomé, Togo, for the benefit of these six (6) member states considered to be pilot countries for the implementation of the e-CO.

In November 2024, ECOWAS launched its electronic certificate of origin, which provides for the dematerialization of the certificate and the automation of its issuance. In order to facilitate the exchange of electronic certificates between the member states of the regional organization, a centralized system of electronic certificates of origin (e-CO) has been set up.

The purpose of this meeting is to examine the level of automation of the certificate of origin acquisition process at the national level with a view to connecting national systems to ECOWAS’s central e-CO system in order to facilitate this exchange.

Speaking on behalf of the ECOWAS Commission’s Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Dr. Kalilou Sylla, Ms. Aissata Koffi Yaméogo, Head of Rules of Origin and Management of Community Preferential Tariff Treatment at the Commission’s Customs Union and Taxation Directorate, reiterated the benefits of e-CO for all member states of the regional organization.

“With the establishment of the automated ECOWAS certificate of origin, ECOWAS member states will be able to trade in a more secure environment with a dynamic comparable to the rest of the world. It is certain that the effective automation of this tool will streamline the flow of trade in community products in the region,” she said.

For his part, Koudjo Dzidefo Bika, Head of the Trade Policy Monitoring and Analysis Division of the Regional Market and Cooperation Department of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) Commission, welcomed his participation in the meeting.

The participation of the UEMOA Commission in this meeting demonstrates the importance it attaches to the implementation of coordinated actions at the regional level to address certain concerns related to regional integration and trade facilitation, he said.

It is important for the WAEMU Commission to take part in this meeting and to monitor the progress of this project at the ECOWAS level and its adoption by all trade stakeholders in West Africa, concluded Koudjo Dzidefo Bika.

This is also the leitmotif of Kabir Hassan, technical advisor on agriculture and trade at the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) to the ECOWAS Commission.

It should be noted that, until now, obtaining a certificate of origin to benefit from tariff preferences in regional trade was often a lengthy and costly paper-based process. The introduction of e-CO now allows West African exporters to submit their applications online, obtain faster validation, and significantly reduce customs clearance times.

By gradually replacing physical documents, this initiative also helps to combat fraud and falsification, while ensuring greater transparency in trade. It also aims to stimulate intra-regional trade and promote economic integration in West Africa.