A major challenge confronting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has been the effective implementation of free movement of people in the sub-region, an official said in Abuja on Saturday.

Addressing a media briefing ahead the commission's 32nd anniversary scheduled for May 28, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, president of the ECOWAS Commission, said that "the effective implementation of our regional protocol on free movement of persons remains one of our major challenges since the creation of ECOWAS".

In spite of the commission's efforts, compliance remained frustrated by numerous roadblocks on highways and extortion by officials mostly at border posts, he said.

The commission, he said, had launched a new initiative to provide incentives among border officials to promote compliance. Pilot monitoring units to monitor compliance and promote best practices were established at Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Togo borders, he added.

According to Chambas, ECOWAS was investing in other complementary initiatives to ease free movement of goods and services through the construction of joint border posts to expedite immigration formalities.

A study on the interconnection of rail networks to facilitate the movement of people in the region would be done to boost intra- regional trade and enable citizens to avail themselves of business opportunities among member states, he added.

ECOWAS Commission was transformed from Secretariat to a commission in January 2007.The commission will celebrate its 32nd anniversary on May 28. The treaty creating it was signed in Lagos.

Source: Xinhua