Officials from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo met in Cotonou on Tuesday, September 15, to discuss a proposed four-country road transport agreement. Organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the meeting aimed to align national regulations and facilitate the movement of goods along the subregion’s main corridors.
The meeting follows a declaration adopted in Niamey in May 2023, which set out a roadmap for aligning legal frameworks governing transit, intermediation and cross-border trade.
Fragmented rules remain a major obstacle
Between 2022 and 2023, UNCTAD examined bottlenecks along the corridor in a study published in February 2025. The study looked at road conditions, the operation of joint border posts and the management of port infrastructure
In 2019, the Observatory of Abnormal Practices recorded just 2.7 checkpoints along the route, with illicit payments of less than CFAF 10,000, or about $18, per trip. Transporters surveyed by the U.N. trade agency, however, reported between 10 and 15 checkpoints in Niger alone, between Gaya and Niamey.
UNCTAD has supported the harmonization process since 2023 and published a subregional implementation strategy in January 2024. In Benin, the COTONI project complements those efforts by supporting governance, security and trade facilitation. Funded by the European Union with €18 million, or about $20.6 million, it has been implemented since 2026 by Enabel, TradeMark Africa and UNCTAD. The project covers National Interstate Road No. 2, a 729-km route between Cotonou and the Niger border.
Common rules will not be enough without interconnected systems
Regulatory harmonization will work only if administrations can apply the same procedures and exchange the information required for transit. Under COTONI, two workshops held in Cotonou in July and September 2026 focused on digitizing procedures and establishing a single customs transit guarantee.
The Interconnected System for the Management of Goods in Transit, SIGMAT, is an early technical step toward that goal. Deployed with Nigeria at Sèmè-Kraké in May 2025, it was later extended to Niger. Benin Customs says the two countries’ systems are now interconnected. The rollout extends beyond the four countries covered by the proposed agreement.
The economic stakes are already visible in data from the Port of Cotonou. In the first quarter of 2024, imports fell 34% and the number of ships calling at the port declined 24%, according to Benin’s Ministry of Economy and Finance. The closure of the Niger border weighed on those figures, but the size of the decline shows how severely a corridor disruption can affect both a port and the landlocked economies it serves.
Further improvements in traffic flows will therefore depend on more than the number of kilometers of road to be covered. They will also depend on the countries’ ability to harmonize rules, guarantees and data while allowing goods to move across borders without additional delays.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article or report do not necessarily reflect those of TradeMark Africa (TMA).
Read the original article at: West African Corridors Still Face Common Rules and Digital Customs Gaps