" Trade Disruption in the West African Sub-Region: Assessing the Impact of Ebola Virus on Cross-Border Trade"

This paper assesses trade disruption in the West African sub-region as it affected cross-border trade during the Ebola outbreak between 2014 and 2016. It places particular emphasis on selected West African countries and bringing to the fore the general ripple effects of cross-border trade disruption on the West African sub region as a Customs Union. Before the Ebola outbreak, the West African cross-border trade had contributed to remarkable economic progress in the sub-region. Evidence abound that the trade (whether formal or informal) took prominent stage in West Africa before the advent of Ebola Virus. For instance, the formal cross-border trade encouraged economic progress of West African countries under the ECOWAS league, boosting the regional import and export trade. On the other hand, the informal cross-border trade apart from the important role it played in terms of food security, it served as an important source of income for numerous small‐scale entrepreneurs to escape poverty and to meet basic needs. The trade witnessed expansion from the 1990s due to the enabling factors of economic liberalization policies, population growth and urbanization. The corollary effects of the intra-regional trade became evident in deepening regional integration, improving economic growth and benefiting the population through employment, market and product diversification. However, in the wake of the Ebola Virus in 2014, responses from West African governments, which were inevitable, disrupted the cross-border trade in no small way. In view of this, this paper examines the extent and damaging impact of trade disruption as it affected cross-border trade within the ECOWAS region. The paper contends that the ravaging virus under focus adversely affected both the formal and informal cross border trade. It also analyses strategies of adaptation and survival adopted by governments, traders and entrepreneurs to keep the head above water. The paper concludes that travel restrictions, quarantines, border closures, market closures, which all contributed to broken supply chains had significant negative implications on cross-border trade.