The Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) has been urged to effectively implement its protocol on free movement of goods and people across the region.

Mr John Isemede, the Director-General, Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), made the appeal in Lagos. Isemede said that the regional economic body needed to be more committed to that objective. He said that the region’s development depended greatly on the regional body’s effectiveness in the implementation of its policies.

Presently, the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of goods and people is being hampered by the activities of the numerous security operatives and checkpoints across our borders.

“The presence of the overbearing number of security personnel mounting checkpoints at member states’ borders is counter-productive to the protocol. Those checkpoints do not only negate the protocol, they have also become a source of worry,” he said.

Isemede said that there was need to harmonise the free movement of goods and people from one member country to another. He said that too many border checkpoints were a threat to the realisation of the objectives of ECOWAS.

He said that those checkpoints were hindering trading and movement of goods within the region. Isemede said: “there is currently a high rate of smuggling activities across the borders.