This is not my first visit to Togo, but my most recent trip to the neighbouring country left me more frustrated than any of my previous journeys.

As a journalist, I have travelled to Togo several times, not always for work, but for family and personal reasons. This is hardly unusual.

Many people in the Volta Region have family ties to Togo, while others trace their ancestral roots to communities across the border.

The relationship between the people on both sides of the Ghana-Togo border is deep and historic. The people of Asogli, for instance, maintain ties with Notsé in Togo, while my community, Awudome Anyirawase, has traditional links to Kpalé. Cross-border travel is therefore not merely commercial; for many of us, it is part of our family and cultural identity.

But my experiences over the past four years have raised serious questions about how ECOWAS' protocols on free movement are being implemented at Ghana's eastern border.

My first trip to Togo was in 2022, when my father took my siblings and me across the border to inspect land belonging to our late grandfather. We travelled through Shia, a small farming community and border town in the Volta Region.

The Ghanaian officials at Shia did not cause us any difficulty as we exited the country. But shortly after crossing into Togo, our experience changed.

At the first checkpoint at George Kofe, Togolese military personnel demanded CFA1,000 before allowing us to proceed. A few minutes later, after travelling on a severely deteriorated road, we arrived at Sevenakopé, where Customs, Immigration, Police and Public Health officials were stationed.

We were asked to produce our travel documents. While I had a valid Ghanaian passport, my father and one of my siblings were travelling with their ECOWAS identification cards. A police officer told us the cards were not accepted and demanded CFA1,000 from each of us.

I challenged the demand, believing that, as an ECOWAS citizen and a journalist, I could draw attention to the issue. But I quickly realised that my profession offered no protection. We were told that unless we paid, we would not be allowed to continue.

Eventually, my brother apologised to the officers on my behalf and we paid.

At Kpadapé, another checkpoint, we were required to register the vehicle and pay almost CFA10,000. From there, we continued towards Kpalimé before eventually joining a better road towards the Maritime Region.

But the pattern continued. At various checkpoints, we were asked for money, with officials citing documents such as visas and other requirements.

I could not understand how, as citizens of ECOWAS member states, we could repeatedly be asked to pay to cross into another member country.

By the end of that journey, we had spent more than GH¢1,000, equivalent to CFA 48,430, on various payments at checkpoints.

The experience has remained consistent

I returned to Togo in 2024 with my family in my private car. I had hoped that using a private vehicle rather than my brother's commercial taxi would make a difference.

It did not.

Some officers even told us openly that we appeared to be a wealthy family because we were travelling in a private vehicle.

In 2025, we travelled again in my brother's taxi. This time, we were advised to use the Kpedze route in the Ho West District to avoid some of the challenges associated with the main crossings.

But the journey presented a different problem.

When we arrived at the Honuta border crossing at about 7pm, Ghanaian Customs officials told us that the border could not be opened because the regulations did not permit entry after 6pm.

We had no option but to spend the night in the vehicle, exposed to mosquitoes and the discomfort of sleeping in a car, until the border reopened the following morning.

At Eklo, a young Togolese police officer demanded CFA1,000 from each of us. When I tried to explain the principles of ECOWAS free movement, his response was blunt: ECOWAS agreements, he told me, existed only on paper.

After making that payment, we decided to use the Lomé route, hoping to avoid some of the checkpoints along the Kave-Tsévié stretch to Akumape.

That, however, proved even more frustrating.

At several checkpoints between Lomé and Asigamé, we were asked to produce various documents, including a visa, yellow fever card and police clearance. Even when we had the necessary vehicle documents, the demands continued.

At one point, when I attempted to challenge a police officer over the issue, my brother's driving licence and vehicle documents were taken from him.

It was either pay or turn back.

That journey left us exhausted. We had set out with GH¢2,000, but the money was depleted largely through payments made at checkpoints. On our return, a colleague and journalist working with BBC Africa in Lomé had to lend me GH¢1,500 to facilitate our journey home.

And then came last weekend

My most recent trip to Togo was just last weekend, when I travelled with my family to attend a funeral.

Once again, the experience was familiar: repeated stops and demands for payments at checkpoints.

On our return journey, officers at Tsévié stopped us, inspected the vehicle documents and my brother's driving licence, and then raised an issue about my seat belt.

We were told to pay CFA10,000.

We refused, explaining that we had only Ghanaian cedis and needed the money for fuel. The officers, however, indicated that they would accept the cedis.

At that point, I decided to identify myself as a journalist and showed my workplace identification card. I also made some contacts with ECOWAS officials and diplomats I knew in Ghana and Togo.

We were eventually allowed to proceed. Interestingly, one of the officers then asked for my telephone number and befriended me.

My trip to Europe

In my first experience travelling to Europe, I arrived at the Accra International Airport, where officials inspected my passport, visa and flight ticket before I proceeded to the waiting area.

I travelled through Istanbul, Türkiye, and I loved every aspect of the trip. There were no security challenges, no delays or being turned back at the airport due to time, no extortion, no police interrogation and no intimidation.

This experience made me wonder: if travelling from Ghana to Europe can be this straightforward, why is it so difficult to travel from one ECOWAS member state to another?

Where is ECOWAS in all this?

I recognise that countries have laws and border regulations that travellers must respect. I also recognise that security agencies have a responsibility to protect their borders and ensure that vehicles and travellers comply with the law.

But there is a fundamental question that needs to be asked: What does ECOWAS' free movement protocol mean to the ordinary Ghanaian travelling to Togo if the reality at the border is so different from the agreements signed by member states?

The ECOWAS Protocol Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment was designed to facilitate the movement of citizens within the community. Yet, from my personal experiences, the implementation at some checkpoints appears far removed from that objective.

My concern is not that travellers should be exempt from legitimate checks. Border officials have every right to verify identities, inspect vehicles and enforce genuine laws.

The concern is when legitimate border controls appear to become opportunities for unofficial payments, particularly when travellers are threatened with being turned back or having their documents seized.

What makes the situation more troubling is the fact that many ordinary travellers may not know their rights under ECOWAS protocols. They therefore pay because they have no choice.

I have travelled as a journalist, and even my professional identity has not shielded me from these experiences. If this is what some ordinary travellers encounter, what happens to those who have neither the confidence nor the contacts to challenge such demands?

This is why ECOWAS must sit up.

The regional bloc must do more than formulate protocols in conference rooms. It must ensure that those protocols are understood and respected at the borders where ordinary citizens encounter them.

There should be stronger monitoring of border operations, clearer information for travellers on their rights and obligations, accessible mechanisms for reporting abuse, and accountability for officials found to be demanding unauthorised payments.

The Ghana-Togo border should be a gateway for commerce, family, culture and regional integration, not a place where citizens are made to feel that crossing into a neighbouring ECOWAS country is a privilege they must repeatedly pay for.

For me, these journeys have become more than family trips. They have exposed a worrying gap between the ideals of regional integration and the experience of the ordinary traveller.

And until that gap is closed, the promise of ECOWAS free movement will remain, for many citizens, an agreement that exists more on paper than at the border.