https://doi.org/10.52131/pjhss.2020.0802.0104 69 eISSN: 2415-007X Pakistan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 8, Number 2, 2020, Pages 69 - 78 Journal Homepage: https://journals.internationalrasd.org/index.php/pjhss Determinants of Intra Sub-Saharan African Trade: Evidence from ECOWAS and CEN-SAD Countries F.G Olaifa 1 , S.O Jimoh 2 1 Department of Economics and Development Studies, Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria Email: felix.olaifa@kwasu.edu.ng 2 Department of Economics and Development Studies, Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria Email: sodiqjimoh7@gmail.com ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article History: Received: Nov 03, 2020 Revised: Dec 14, 2020 Accepted: Dec 18, 2020 Available Online: Dec 31, 2020 This study investigates the determinants of intra-regional trade in the Economic of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Community of Sahel-Saharan Sates (CEN-SAD) over the period of 1995-2018.The study employs the modified Poisson models, which captures the source of zero counts. Data on the real exchange rate, population, and gross domestic product were sourced from World Bank Development Indicators. Import flow, time of import, and time of export were computed from WITS (COMTRADE). Further, the study obtained data on voice and account, law and order, government effect, regulatory quality, reduction in political violence, control of corruption from World Wide Governance indicator. The results of the study indicated that imports within ECOWAS are driven by one governance variable or the other either in the importing countries or the partner countries. Besides, trade facilitation is a binding constraint to imports, while population and GDP are important drivers of intra-ECOWAS trade. For CEN-SAD, it is evident that the gravity variables are responsible for imports, whereas governance variables have no significant effect on imports. The implication of these results is that authorities in ECOWAS and CEN-SAD should strengthen governance institutions as doing so will boost trade within the region. Also, it is necessary for government, particularly in CEN-SAD, to come up with policies that will allow for accountability and transparency. Keywords: International Trade; Governance variables; Poisson models; ECOWAS and CEN-SAD JEL Classification Codes: F16, F140, C3, C4, F20 © 2020 The Authors, Published by iRASD. This is an Open Access Article under the Creative Common Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 Corresponding Author’s Email: felix.olaifa@kwasu.edu.ng 1. Introduction International trade plays a pertinent role in any economy, and the volume of trade between two or more countries goes a long way in determining the strength of the relationship between the trading partners. According to UNCTAD and UN (2014), higher trading activities induce economic growth and helps nations to achieve development goals such as poverty reduction, employment, and environmental sustainability. This is because trade leads to the inflow of finance, technology, and services needed to improve productive capacity in agriculture, industry, and service sectors. The growth and the development effect of trade are evident in East Asia and South-East Asia where economic growth was attributed to the ability East Asia and South-East Asia to strengthen competitive productivity and increase the export level in the agricultural and textile sectors (UNCTAD and UN, 2014). Trade has a bearing on the job creation and standard of living of the populace. The channel through which trade leads to job creation is strongly linked to productivity growth. According to UNCTAD and UN (2013), higher trading activities provide nations the opportunity to access foreign technology and foreign direct investment needed to enhance productivity. The increase in the level of productivity strengthens the competitiveness of the trading nations. Competition promotes innovative solutions, which in turns leads to the production of more goods and services, enhance the exports capacities of the country, and generate employment opportunities. As