The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Regional Competition Authority (ERCA) has become a member of the Stanford Computational Antitrust project, gaining access to a global network of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools designed to detect anti-competitive conduct and strengthen merger oversight across the region.
ERCA covers twelve member states of ECOWAS across West Africa and operates from its headquarters in Banjul, The Gambia, handling mergers, anticompetitive practices, and a developing regional framework on consumer protection. The membership was formalised on March 5, 2026.
The Stanford Computational Antitrust project, hosted by Stanford University’s CodeX Center for Legal Informatics and led by Professor Thibault Schrepel, brings together over 70 competition agencies worldwide alongside leading academics from law, economics, and computer science to explore how computational methods can advance competition enforcement.
ERCA Executive Director Dr. Simeon Koffi said the partnership would directly strengthen the authority’s capacity to monitor cross-border anti-competitive behaviour in a large and rapidly evolving regional market. “By collaborating with leading global agencies, we will enhance our ability to detect and address cross-border anti-competitive practices, ensuring a fair and competitive market for the benefit of ECOWAS consumers and businesses,” he said.
As a member, ERCA will contribute to the project’s annual report on computational enforcement tools, participate in its annual workshop, and access advances developed by partner agencies across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
ERCA activated its full merger control regime on October 1, 2024, bringing a unified supranational dimension to competition enforcement across the bloc. The regime requires companies operating in at least two ECOWAS member states and meeting specific financial thresholds to notify the authority before completing cross-border mergers or acquisitions.
The Stanford membership follows ERCA’s recent launch of its Statistical Information System and its ongoing development of digital electronic filing services, indicating a broader push to modernise the authority’s enforcement infrastructure ahead of what is expected to be a busy period for merger activity in the region.
