By Ahmed Idris
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday inaugurated the Presidential Committee for Impact and Readiness Assessment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCTA) at the event at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The committee, chaired by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment and co-chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, has Minister of Budget and National Planning, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Finance, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Economic Adviser to the President, chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, president of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as members.
Speaking at the event, the President said Nigeria would not sign any treaty without assessing its impact on the lives of its citizens, stressing that the country would henceforth breakaway from the past practice where treaties were signed without positive gains.
“We are determined to breakaway from the past practice of committing Nigeria to treaties without a definite implementation plan to actualise the expected benefit while mitigating the risks. We cannot go back to the days of signing agreements without understanding and planning for the consequences of such actions and our country being the worst for it.
“Few months ago I directed a nationwide stakeholders’ engagement on the Africa Free Trade Continental Area Agreement to understand the true impact of this agreement on Nigeria and Nigerians, considering the existing domestic and regional policies as it relates to trade,” he said.
The President said the key issues raised by stakeholders on the agreement were abuse of rules of origin, smuggling arising from difficulties in border controls and unqualified impact of legacy preferential trade agreements.
He said other issues raised by the stakeholders include low capacity and capability of local businesses to conduct international trade, costly finance, and insufficient energy and transport logistics infrastructure.
He said, however, that the present administration’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) would address the issues.
The President charged members of the committee to concentrate on the issues raised during the nationwide consultations in order to find lasting solutions to them.
“Your task as members of the Impact and Readiness Assessment of the African Continental Free Trade Area Committee is to address the issues raised during the stakeholders’ consultations on the Africa Continental free trade Agreement. You are expected to develop short, medium and long term measures that will address any challenges arising therefrom,’’ he said.
He said Nigeria’s vision for intra-African trade was for a free movement of made in Africa goods, noting that Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa, adding that for too long, the country’s domestic productive capabilities were neglected in favour of imports.
In his remarks, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, said the committee would assess the potential cost and impact of the AFCTA for Nigeria in relation to the benefits, identify the short, medium and long term measure to prepare Nigerian businesses for the take-off of AFCTA trading group.
The minister said an updated trade policy is being prepared for Nigeria and the draft would be ready for review by the end of the year.
