Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja
In a bid geared towards addressing challenges confronting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in West Africa, the ECOWAS Parliament conducted Field Visit and Town Hall Meeting in the Republic of Benin.
The two events on Wednesday, July 29, 2026 and Thursday, July 30, 2026 form part of the programmes lined up for the ongoing delocalized meeting of the parliament’s committee on Industry and Private Sector, Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research, Administration, Finance and Budget and Public Accounts in Cotonou, Capital of Benin.
A field visit to LES JUS TILLOU, a pineapple juice factory witnessed complaints by the owner, Madam Guedegbe Marcos.
She narrated the bureaucratic hurdles she faces exporting products within West Africa, while trading with Canada and Europe remains comparatively smooth.
The entrepreneurer said the situation is dire for trade particularly with Ghana and Nigeria.
According to her, the factory, built with a nearly 4 billion CFA loan from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), now requires an additional 1 billion CFA for expansion and packaging.
She said despite this high demand from both West African and Western markets, regional trade barriers are stifling growth.
Madam Marcos particularly stressed that ‘free movement of People, goods and services’ is just a phrase that is far from reality on ground.
Parliamentarians after listening to her, promised to work with lawmakers in member countries to see how they could bring leaders on board in addressing these complaints.
The train on Wednesday also stopped over at Glo-Djigbe Industrial Zone which is a public-private partnership between the Republic of Benin and ARISE IIP.
It is located 45 km from Cotonou Port and 40+ industries setting up as of 2023 for a wide range of processing and manufacturing activities such as Cashew processing, Soya Processing, Integrated Textile Factories with spinning, weaving and garmenting, Ceramic tiles factory, electric bikes factory, pharmaceuticals factory, etc.
GDIZ Textile Park is a vertically integrated industrial zone, encompassing right from spinning to garmenting.
Thursday’s town hall meeting at the popular KP3 in Cotonou gave traders the opportunity to present before the MPs challenges they face at the borders.
Some of the traders who spoke included President, women traders who talked about harassment and corruption at border posts.
The traders want trade to move from informal sector to the formal sector….
They also mentioned difficulties in accessing loans especially for women, maintaining that women are always not considered.
They also advocated the harmonization of customs’ fee.
After listening to the traders, the MPs vowed to deliberate on their worries and present it to the authorities.
The parliamentarians concluded that trade should help address issues of poverty and insecurity, maintaining that whatever that would not allow MSMEs to thrive within the sub-region should be looked into and instantly abolished.
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