Non-tariff barriers driven by poor border enforcement and corruption continue to undermine free movement and trade across West Africa, a regional trade advocate has said.

Ziad Hamoui, co-founder and president ofBorderless Alliance, said the biggest obstacles to cross-border trade are not tariffs but the treatment of traders themselves.

“The most absurd and economically regressive non-tariff barrier isn’t the structure of tariffs… it is what I call the paper versus pavement asymmetry,” Hamoui said during an African Union Day webinar.

He explained that while regional frameworks such as ECOWAS protocols allow goods to move freely, enforcement practices at borders often target individuals rather than cargo.

“You might be a trader with goods qualified to move across borders, but the mover himself is questioned and held back,” he said.

Hamoui said the burden falls disproportionately on small-scale traders, who make up the majority of cross-border operators in West Africa, many of them women.

He cited research indicating that more than 90 percent of traders lack adequate knowledge of official trade protocols, creating opportunities for exploitation.

“This information deficit gives border officials immense leverage,” he said, noting that informal intermediaries often charge arbitrary fees to facilitate passage.

According to him, at least 40 percent of traders encounter bribery, with many receiving no official receipts for payments made.

“Three quarters of payments go unreceipted in some corridors,” he said.

Hamoui also warned that delays caused by multiple checkpoints and identity checks are leading to significant economic losses, particularly for traders transporting perishable goods.

“For those carrying fresh food, these multi-hour delays cause massive spoilage and direct destruction of market capital,” he said.

He described the situation as a contradiction between policy and practice.

“We have liberalised on paper, but we have normalised human extortion on the pavement,” he said.

Hamoui called for reforms to align border enforcement with regional trade policies, improve access to information for traders, and eliminate unofficial intermediaries.

“We are trying to modernise trade frameworks while subjecting the humans moving the goods to predatory practices,” he said.