Abuja: ECOWAS Parliament Speaker, M©mounatou Ibrahima, has called on member states to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which has entered its operational phase, to deepen regional integration. She made the appeal while declaring open the ECOWAS Parliament’s 2026 First Extraordinary Session and Seminar, marking the beginning of the regional legislature’s work for the year.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the seminar is themed ‘Deepening Regional Integration through the AfCFTA: Opportunities and Challenges for Expanding Intra-Community Trade.’ Ibrahima urged all stakeholders, including member states, regional parliamentarians, the private sector, civil society, women, youth, and technical partners to seize the opportunities presented by AfCFTA to deepen regional economic growth.
The speaker highlighted AfCFTA’s potential to create one of the largest markets by population, providing a historic opportunity to make the region an integrated and resilient economic power. However, she underscored that success requires collective embrace from governments, private sector, and civil society. She emphasized the role of regional parliamentarians in harmonizing legal frameworks, removing non-tariff barriers, and ensuring inclusive and equitable integration.
Ibrahima stressed that ECOWAS, with nearly fifty years of integration experience, must lead and coordinate the process, especially as the region hosts the Secretariat of the Agreement. She called for a strategy grounded in ECOWAS’ strengths, such as its dynamic economic growth and harmonized macroeconomic framework, while addressing weaknesses like low intra-regional trade and underdeveloped industrial base.
She also pointed out the need for member states to ratify the AfCFTA Agreement and define national strategies to enhance coordinated implementation and global influence. In a goodwill message, Nigeria’s Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, emphasized the importance of deeper integration for competing in the global economy and warned against fragmentation and isolation.
He called for practical implementation of AfCFTA commitments, including harmonized standards and efficient ports, to reduce costs and empower entrepreneurs. Akpabio described AfCFTA as a restoration of Africa’s interconnected trade systems, urging economic and political unity to secure markets and safeguard prosperity.