As part of the implementation of the Agricultural Trade and Markets Scorecard for West Africa and the Sahel (EATM-SCORECARD), national stakeholders met from 20 to 27 March 2025 to consider and validate the data collected with a view to integrating them into an ePlatform.   

The national validation workshops in Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone, Chad and Togo, with the support of ECOWAS and AKADEMIYA2063, were part of the process of making the EATM SCORECARD operational at both national and regional levels, with the aim of facilitating trade in agricultural products within and between the countries of West Africa and the Sahel.

Primary and Secondary Data was collected between 2023 and 2024 and analyzed and reconciled at a regional workshop held in February 2025 in Lomé, Togo. As a follow up of the regional workshop, national stakeholders made up of traders, agricultural producers, customs officers, forwarding agents, transporters, processors and experts from the ECOWAS Commission and AKADEMIYA2063 met in respective countries to validate the data.

During the various workshops, the heads of components 3 of the West Africa Food System Resilience Program (FSRP) and technical experts from the SCORECARD national teams presented the methodology and operation of the regional mechanism, with particular emphasis on the national process, including the data collection.

The national validation workshops were held both in group work and plenary sessions, during which participants examined and validated the findings from the data collection exercises which consisted of 19 indicators and 3 objectives. the main communication actions to be undertaken around the SCORECARD and each country’s performance were discussed.

In addition to reviewing and validating the findings from the data collection, the national workshops also provided the platform for considering innovative ways of sustaining the SCORESCARD mechanism to ensure regular monitoring of the regional and national performances in implementing regional policies and regulations for increase in intra and inter regional trade in West Africa and with the Sahel.

The national validated reports are to be uploaded to a regional ePlatform to produce a regional report which will be validated in May 2025 to coincide with the 50^th Anniversary celebration of    ECOWAS.