The African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a grant of 1.7 billion CFA francs to strengthen private sector competitiveness across all eight member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), in a move aimed at helping the region’s businesses produce more efficiently and expand their footprint under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund approved the grant to finance the Project to Strengthen Competitiveness of the Private Sector across WAEMU, covering Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
The project will deliver targeted support, including training of trainers, to 80 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are ready to begin exporting their products, including businesses led by women and young people. Support will help these firms navigate export procedures, access financing, meet regulatory requirements, adopt new technologies, and improve sustainable production practices.
According to Lamin Barrow, Director General for West Africa at the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, the initiative is designed to harmonise national strategies, maximise synergies across countries, and strengthen existing mechanisms for regional integration, drawing on the Bank’s experience in supporting infrastructure, trade facilitation, and export diversification across the region.
National consultations will be convened with AfCFTA National Committees to assess implementation progress and build a shared monitoring and accountability framework. These will be followed by regional workshops to embed a common system for tracking results across the bloc.
The project’s direct beneficiaries include public institutions responsible for AfCFTA implementation, private-sector stakeholders within the union, and the broader regional population of approximately 147 million people. The initiative is expected to deliver gains through improved trade facilitation, reduced trade costs, and the creation of medium and long-term trade opportunities, while furthering WAEMU’s capacity as a customs union and strengthening the role of its Regional Chamber of Commerce in representing the private sector.
The approval comes as African economies work to convert the promise of the AfCFTA into measurable gains for businesses on the ground, with the WAEMU bloc positioned as a key testing ground for what deeper regional integration can deliver.
