Factors that adversely affect the growth of commerce in West Africa are:
(i) Inadequate capital: Commerce requires a lot of capital to keep pace with trends which most Africans are unable to afford.
(ii) Low per capita income/ Poverty: West Africans have low purchasing power as a result of low income. This leads to consumer resistance.
(iii) Political instability: West Africa has continued to experience short-range change of government which tends to create fear in investors. There is also instability in investment policies.
(iv) Inadequate facilities: Various aids to trade such as banking, warehousing, insurance and transport are inadequate to facilitate growth of commerce.
(v) Poor communication system: Most of the countries in West Africa have no direct telephone link, no internet, etc. This slows down the rate of economic activities.
(vi) Immobility of labour: No free movement of labour and trade among West African countries.
(vii) Prevalent business frauds: Loss of faith in cheque system of payment compounded by high prevalent of business fraud, e.g, Advanced Fee Fraud popularly known as 419.
(viii) West Africans as primary producers: They produce and sell the same type of agricultural products, thus generating low volume of trade and absence of large market.