AfCFTA: Buhari receives report advising Nigeria to sign free trade deal

Mathew Dadiya – Abuja

Nigeria May sign the long-awaited African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as President Muhammadu Buhari has received the report of the Presidential Committee on Impact assessment and Readiness for the signing of the free trade agreement.

The AfCFTA is a trade agreement between 52 African Union member states, with the goal of creating a single the market followed by free movement and a single-currency union, and signed in Kigali, Rwanda, on 21 March 2018.

The President while receiving the report of the committee at the presidential villa, Abuja, noted that AfCFTA “will have both negative and positive impact for the Nigerian economy.”

The committee led by the Chairman, Mr Desmond Guobadia recommended that the President should consider signing the agreement to enable Nigeria to join the AfCFTA.

Guobadia said, “our reports show that on the balance, Nigeria should consider joining the AfCFTA and using the opportunity of the ongoing AfCFTA Phase I negotiations to secure the necessary safeguards required to ensure that our domestic policies and programs are not compromised.”

Buhari had explained that the AfCFTA that Nigeria desires “is one that would assist the country to create wealth for investors and contribute to the job creation programme of the government.”

He said “The AfCFTA we aspire to have should therefore not only create wealth for investors but also jobs and prosperity for our vibrant and hardworking citizens. The benefits of economic growth must be prosperity for the masses.

“For AfCFTA to succeed, we must develop policies that promote African production, among other benefits.

“Africa, therefore, needs not only a trade policy but also a continental manufacturing agenda. Our vision for intra-African trade is for the free movement of “made in Africa goods”.

That is, goods and services made locally with dominant African content in terms of raw materials and value addition,” he said.

President Buhari noted that “If we allow unbridled imports to continue, it will dominate our trade. The implication of this is that coastal importing nations will prosper while landlocked nations will continue to suffer and depend on aid.”

The President explained that henceforth, the government will ensure that all negotiated agreements create business opportunities for Africa’s manufacturers, service providers and innovators.

“As I stated during the inauguration of this Committee, many of the challenges we face today, whether security, economic or corruption is rooted in our inability, over the years, to domesticate the production of the most basic requirements and create jobs for our very vibrant, young and dynamic population, Buhari added.

President Buhari promised to consider the report of the committee which he said will form part of the consideration in government’s decision on the next steps on the AfCFTA in particular and on broader trade integration subjects.

In his remarks, while presenting the report earlier, chairman of the committee Desmond Guobadia said they proposed policies, programmes, projects and interventions which may position Nigeria adequately for the AfCFTA.

“It is envisaged that the trade liberalisation offered by the AfCFTA will make African goods more attractive and potentially cheaper than similar products from outside the continent”, he said.