Africa
A former Director of IT Services at the ECOWAS Commission, Mr Wale Ajala, has canvassed digital reforms and commitment by member states to the actualisation of the Regional Vehicle Administration Information System (RVAIS) in West Africa.
Ajala gave the advice, on Friday, during a virtual meeting to commemorate the West African Road Safety Organisation (WARSO 2026) international celebration day.
According to him, the regional vision remained unfulfilled due to poor implementation and weak regional coordination of the ECOWAS road safety integration.
He said the RVAIS project, designed to facilitate seamless sharing of vehicle and driver information among ECOWAS member states, failed due to fragmented systems and lack of harmonised regional data management.
Ajala said that many regional protocols and digital initiatives in ECOWAS often suffer neglect after ratification and validation stages.
“During my tenure at the ECOWAS Commission, I witnessed first-hand how very important regional protocols and charters, after going through validation and ratification, end up gathering dust.
“This is the truth and we need to do something about it,” he said.
The former director said that the RVAIS project was introduced during the inauguration of WARSO in Abuja in 2008 to address regional data sharing, stolen vehicle tracking and crash reporting across West Africa.
“We took our time in designing that solution and visited member states to understand their realities.
“I discovered that crash data in some countries were still being recorded on paper. When you asked for records, they had to search shelves for files,” he said.
He said that the project design considered the technological realities of member states to ensure inclusiveness.
Ajala said that the estimated cost of the project at the time was 300,000 dollars per member state, covering both national and regional infrastructure requirements.
According to him, the African Development Bank (AfDB) later agreed to provide counterpart funding of 200,000 dollars per country, leaving member states to contribute 100,000 dollars each.
Ajala, however, said only Nigeria responded by paying its counterpart funding, leading to the collapse of the proposed regional rollout initially scheduled for March 2016.
“If that project had taken off then, we would probably be celebrating its 10th anniversary today,” he said.
Ajala said the total estimated cost of the RVAIS project at the time stood at 18.8 million dollars, comprising 14.3 million dollars for national components and 4.5 million dollars for regional infrastructure.
He identified inadequate political commitment, weak accountability mechanisms and poor technical capacity as major obstacles to implementation.
Ajala said further that the absence of interoperable systems across member states made cross-border verification and enforcement difficult.
“As soon as you cross the border, what is recognised in one country becomes meaningless in another country.
“Road safety data across West Africa is fragmented, not standardised and often inaccessible even to neighbouring countries,” he said.
The former ECOWAS director also identified inadequate local technical capacity and overdependence on foreign-managed systems as major challenges affecting sustainability of regional projects.
Ajala, however, proposed the establishment of a West Africa Road Safety Data Exchange platform for real-time sharing of information on drivers’ licences, vehicle roadworthiness, insurance status, crash records and traffic violations.
He said that the platform would strengthen regional enforcement and improve road safety coordination across borders.
According to him, advancement in cloud technology had significantly reduced the cost of implementing a modified regional data exchange platform.
“Given advancement in technology and cloud infrastructure, the proposed modified RVAIS system can now be implemented at an estimated cost of 3.5 million dollars,” he said.
Ajala explained that countries could now connect through cloud-based systems with minimal infrastructure requirements.
He also advocated deployment of intelligent infrastructure, including automated speed detection systems, solar-powered traffic monitoring devices and regional offence repositories linked to licence renewal processes.
According to him, similar digital enforcement systems had helped to reduce speeding and improve compliance in some African regions.
He urged ECOWAS member states to adopt harmonised data standards and interoperable border systems within the next 18 months.
Ajala also proposed the appointment of national implementation officers in each ECOWAS member state to ensure accountability and follow-up on regional road safety commitments.
“What is missing is accountability; It is important to appoint people who believe in the vision and understand the gains expected from the system,” he said.
Ajala stressed that implementation of the African Road Safety Charter would remain ineffective without practical digital collaboration among member states.
“What we need now is to move from ratification to action,” he said. (NAN)
A.I
May 8, 2026
Tags: ECOWAS Mr Wale Ajala