The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has launched a digital Certificate of Origin aimed at enhancing trade facilitation a
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has launched a digital Certificate of Origin aimed at enhancing trade facilitation and regional integration in West Africa.
This initiative, unveiled in Lagos, Nigeria, marks a significant achievement as the first digital certificate of its kind introduced by a regional bloc in Africa. The program is designed to streamline the process of verifying the origin of goods traded within the ECOWAS region, addressing long-standing challenges associated with the manual, paper-based system.
The Certificate of Origin is an official document certifying that goods meet the origin rules to qualify for tariff preferences under free trade agreements. Historically, this process has been manual, prone to fraud, and caused delays in cross-border trade.
Embracing technology
Digitalization covers the entire process from application to approval, including electronic submissions and digital signatures by Customs. It reduces human intervention, ensuring transparency and authenticity.
Additionally digitalization speeds up Customs processes and facilitates smoother cross-border trade and strengthens regional value chains and boosts intra-regional trade. The initiative is supported by partners like the African Development Bank, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the World Customs Organization. Representatives from various sectors emphasized its potential to improve economic competitiveness and sustainable development. The ECOWAS E-Certificate of Origin sets a precedent for other regional blocs in Africa, aligning with broader goals under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“This end-to-end and origin-to-destination digitalization covers the application and delivery of certificates of origin, digital signature of the certificates, electronic submission to Customs for approval prior to export and subsequent digital signature by Customs, transmission to Customs of Customs of importing country through a secure and dedicated system aims to enhance intra-community trade and boost the economic competitiveness of Member States,” said ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs And Agriculture, Massandje TOURE-LITSE.