Established in October 2019, the "October, Consume Local Month" initiative celebrates its sixth anniversary this year. Jointly led by the UEMOA Commission and its member states, it aims to be an economic and civic event dedicated to promoting products and services from the community area. The 2025 edition, organized around the theme "Consuming local, a factor in the development of competitive regional value chains in UEMOA," aims to strengthen regional integration by focusing on promising sectors and the competitiveness of businesses in the face of the challenges of market opening, particularly within the framework of the AfCFTA. Throughout the month of October, exhibitions, conferences, tastings, awards, and business meetings will be on the program, both nationally and regionally, with the aim of improving the quality, traceability, and accessibility of "made in UEMOA" products.

1. This year, the UEMOA Commission is celebrating the 6th edition of the "October, Month of Local Consumption" initiative. Can you remind us of the context in which this initiative was adopted?

The initiative is organized annually by the Member States and the UEMOA Commission at the regional level. It was adopted on October 25, 2019, in particular to: strengthen regional integration and increase the levels of intra-community trade, which stood at 12.5% in 2019 according to the UEMOA trade monitoring report; increase the visibility of products originating in the UEMOA area; strengthen the competitiveness of Union companies in the face of the opening of markets, especially that of the AfCFTA; promote the value chains of production and consumption of Union products; impact the extroverted consumption patterns of the Union's populations; increase the free movement of products originating within the Union; and guarantee food security.

Concretely, this initiative consists of the organization of commercial events aimed at increasing the supply, demand and consumption of goods and services produced within the Union throughout the month of October each year.

The concept of "local product" encompasses all tangible and intangible national products, including local and traditional products, sufficiently processed industrial products, as well as services offered by companies and organizations established in the UEMOA area.

2. The theme chosen for this edition is “Consuming locally, a factor in the development of competitive regional value chains in WAEMU”, what explains the choice of this theme?

Since 2021, it has been customary to choose a unifying theme around which the initiative is organized: "October, Month of Consuming Locally". Thus, several themes have been developed over these 6 years, including: 2021 "Promotion of consuming locally, a contribution to the successful implementation of the AfCFTA"; 2022 "Consumption of local products, a lever for increasing productive investments, development and regional integration"; 2023 "What strategies to stimulate the consumption of goods and services in the WAEMU area?"; 2024 "Consuming locally, a lever for industrial development, competitiveness and resilience of WAEMU economies"; 2025 "Consuming locally, a factor in the development of competitive regional value chains in WAEMU".

The thematic focus of the 2025 edition aims to deepen reflection on the development of priority regional and agricultural value chains in support of the implementation of the "2025-2030 Strategic Plan of the UEMOA Commission, Impact 2030", whose ambition is to build an attractive economic space with competitive regional sectors. The promotion of value chains through local consumption becomes an important lever in the process of implementing the strategic plan.

3. Concretely, on an organizational level, how will this 6th edition take place?

Since the initiative "October, Month of Local Consumption" was taken 6 years ago, the UEMOA Member States and the Commission have, respectively, organized, at national and regional level, five (5) editions, by implementing various events of commercial information, awareness and reflection.

At the national level in 2025, each country will organize, on the basis of the framework note adopted in July 2025, several events including the launch ceremony, the exhibition and sale of local products, the public conference on the theme of the edition, the training session, the tasting of local dishes, company visits, the distinction of the winners and the cultural evening.

In 2025, at the regional level, in addition to the evaluation of previous editions, two major activities will be organized: the launching ceremony which will be held under the chairmanship of the President of the Commission, Mr. Abdoulaye DIOP, on October 1, 2025 and the public conference with panels on the place of local products in the implementation of the UEMOA strategic plan and the development of regional value chains in the cotton sector.

4. Since 2019, when this initiative was established by the Ministers of Trade of the WAEMU member states, what assessment do you draw from the 5 editions already organized?

In terms of results, it should be noted that the current study will produce conclusive results. For the time being, it is worth noting: the strong political commitment of national authorities and those of the Commission; the development of national and regional strategies on the promotion of local products; the adoption of texts aimed at promoting local products in public procurement; the labeling of many products in the Member States to guarantee their quality, authenticity, traceability and create more confidence among consumers; the support of populations for the concept, a sign of the affirmation of their cultural identity.

 

5. What improvements do you intend to make to this initiative to promote the consumption of “made in UEMOA” products?

Regarding improvement, it will involve: strengthening public policies for the implementation of strategies to promote local products; strengthening the capacities of actors in value chains to improve the quality and prices of local products placed on the market, which will be an asset for the Union in the context of the already operational AfCFTA; intensifying communication actions with the public for better consumption of local products; facilitating access to financing credits.

6. What invitation can you extend to the population of the entire Union?

The Commission invites Member States to proceed, as every year, with the implementation of the selected commercial promotion activities (launch, sales exhibition, reflection, etc.), to mobilize all national actors and to extend the celebration activities beyond the capitals, throughout the month of October.