This paper shows the effect of changes in GDP of ECOWAS countries on the growth of their freight transport volumes. The study is based on cross-sectional data from ECOWAS countries from 2000 to 2013 from the ECOWAS Commission. The study revealed a strong correlation between GDP and the volume of freight in ECOWAS countries. It also showed that the development of short sea shipping model depends considerably on growth in GDP and increase in seaport corridors of the ECOWAS sub-region. It is recommended that there should be sub-regional policy frameworks that benchmark best practices from other sub-regional success stories.
Keywords: Correlation, Freight, GDP and ECOWAS, Short-sea, Transport, shipping
