press of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) transmitted to the AIP, Thursday, April 15, 2021.

ECOWAS is committed to guiding the first steps of women traders and producers in the intra-African market. The first workshop in the series, organized in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), kicks off in Accra, Ghana, home of the AfCFTA Secretariat.
It brings together 20 traders from the five English-speaking member states of the ECOWAS region (Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone). Participants come from agriculture, agribusiness, textiles, arts and crafts, and trade development agencies.
Bolanle Adetoun, Acting Director of the ECOWAS Center for Gender Development (CCDG) speaking on behalf of Siga Fatima Jagne, ECOWAS Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, recalled that women traders play a vital role in African economies. “The capacity building program aims to highlight the opportunities offered by the AfCFTA to ECOWAS traders, especially women, and to contribute to the understanding of strategies and approaches to improve the value addition of goods and services. under the ZLECAf,” she explained.
The workshops aim to foster direct links between SMEs in the ECOWAS region and SMEs and business groups in Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa.