Benin’s Talon says ECOWAS in need of urgent reform

The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, is facing significant challenges, with stalled infrastructure projects and weak trade links highlighting an urgent need for reform, according to Benin President Patrice Talon. Speaking at a regional economic summit in Abuja on Saturday, ahead of a routine gathering of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Talon painted a stark picture of the organization’s current state.

“ECOWAS is a perfect example of regional integration. Unfortunately, our ECOWAS is in crisis right now,” the Nigerian presidency quoted Talon as saying in a statement.

Talon specifically cited the 678-kilometer (420-mile) West African Gas Pipeline as a prime example of regional dysfunction. He attributed its failure to deliver energy across borders to persistent delays and poor coordination. “This failure of regional cooperation wastes resources and undermines integration,” he asserted, revealing that Benin now resorts to importing gas from Qatar to meet its domestic demand, a situation he deemed “ridiculous.”

Concerns were also raised about the West African Power Pool, a project designed to interconnect national electricity grids across the region. Despite years of investment, the initiative is underperforming. “Unless we act decisively, I’m not confident it ever will,” Talon remarked, expressing strong doubts about its future success without immediate intervention.

Talon’s observations resonated with those of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who highlighted that intra-regional trade in West Africa remains strikingly low, below 10 percent. “This low trade is not due to a failure of will but a coordination failure,” Tinubu stated, adding a cautionary note: “The global economy will not wait for West Africa to get its act together, and neither should we.”

Looking beyond the regional challenges, Talon also pointed to President Donald Trump’s “trade war” with the rest of the world as a “wake-up call for all of us.” He suggested that the United States is “giving us a very important lesson — they are fighting for their own interests,” implying that West African nations should similarly prioritize and aggressively pursue their own collective interests.