PHOTO: ECOWAS Ambassador to Liberia, Josephine Nkumah, speaking during the dialogue
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The West African regional organization, ECOWAS, has been holding a dialogue with women engaged in cross-border trade, in order to minimize some of the challenges they are encountering in bringing their goods.
The one-day dialogue ended in the Liberian capital, Monrovia recently.
Speaking during the forum, ECOWAS Ambassador to Liberia, Josephine Nkrumah said that the dialogue was intended to ascertain the challenges women who are engage in cross-border trade in order to explain some of the unnecessary and illegal taxes that they are paying state security agents assigned at the border when bringing their goods.
According to Ambassador Nkrumah, the ECOWAS Heads of States have long since adopted a protocol for people in the West African region to trade without experiencing any hindrance.
The ECOWAS Ambassador then assured the women that the West African regional organization will printing huge sign boards at various crossing points displaying goods that the women are not supposed to pay any money on.
Ambassador Nkrumah promised the women that she will be taking their experiences to the ECOWAS Commission in order to minimize the suffering of the women during their cross border trade.
She indicated that ECOWAS is an organization geared towards unifying the peoples, easing their movements within the region and the difficulties and illegal monies in cross-border trade
“These illegal monies reduce the profits and eventually transfer to the ordinary people who buy these goods,” Amb. Nkrumah said; adding: “the only goods that customs collect taxes on are those not produced form any of the countries in ECOWAS.”
During the dialogue, women complained of the collection of illegal taxes, the lack of housing and warehouses at the borders and the huge transportation
At the end of the dialogue, it was agreed for the women to organize themselves in order for the ECOWAS Ambassador will take their leadership on a tour to the border to educate various security agents at the boundaries.