Rising Soap Trade Among West African Countries

Intra-African trade (especially in manufactured products) has been touted as a major driver of economic development in Africa as it promotes the scaling of African industries. Though this concept of intra-African trade is not new to African economies, it was significantly impaired by colonialization and has since been a struggle for many African economies to effectively trade among themselves, especially in manufactured products. The extroverted pattern of trade towards the West and now Asia has undermined regional integration and exposed many African countries to external shocks. Notwithstanding, this pattern seems to be increasingly shifting among West African economies, especially for less endowed countries like Burkina Faso and Togo where ECOWAS trade represents about 60% – 70% of their total global trade.