A two-day technical workshop organized by The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) came to an end yesterday, February 28 in Banjul – The Gambia.

The workshop was to validate the optimal route for a 3,164-kilometer supranational highway, including 600 kilometres of maritime connection, linking eight countries in the region otherwise known as the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan multinational corridor project.

Cape Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire will be connected via this project which is part of the broader Trans-African Highway (TAH7), linking Cape Verde to Lagos in Nigeria.

The flagship ECOWAS project is aimed at facilitating the free movement of people and goods, reducing trade barriers and strengthening regional economic integration.

Thus, the Banjul conference was attended by road engineering experts, representatives from the eight Member States concerned, as well as financial partners such as the African Development Bank and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development.

During the workshop, experts examined the proposed route in detail, taking into account technical, economic, environmental and social factors.