ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN ENHANCING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE ECOWAS TRADE LIBERALISATION SCHEME AMONG SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

This study assessed the effectiveness of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) communication strategies in enhancing public awareness of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Anambra State, Nigeria. Although the ETLS has operated since 1979 as ECOWAS's oldest trade policy instrument, offering duty-free access to fifteen member states, it remains chronically underutilised by Nigerian SMEs owing to a persistent gap in grassroots awareness. Anchored in the Communication for Development (C4D) framework and Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations theory, the study adopted a survey research design, administering structured questionnaire to 370 SME operators across Onitsha, Nnewi, and Awka, of which 346 were valid for analysis (93.5% response rate), selected through proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests of independence. Findings revealed that ETLS awareness among Anambra SMEs is critically low, at 19.5%, and that ECOWAS communication strategies are predominantly formal and top-down, failing to reach the largely informal SME population that dominates business activity in the state. The channels SMEs actually rely on, namely peer networks (47.0%), WhatsApp (24.1%), and community radio (11.9%), are largely unengaged by ECOWAS, producing a fundamental channel mismatch. Chi-square tests confirmed statistically significant relationships between communication strategy exposure and ETLS awareness (χ² = 47.813, p < 0.05), between business registration status and awareness (χ² = 61.247, p < 0.05), and between ECOWAS-preferred and SME-preferred channels (χ² = 83.416, p < 0.05). The study recommends a grassroots-oriented, multi-channel communication approach incorporating community radio in Igbo and Pidgin English, trade association WhatsApp networks, peer educator programmes using ETLS champions, and a structured follow-through mechanism to convert awareness into participation.