Finally, Nigeria agrees to sign AfCFTA

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

After one year of intensive consultations, Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, has approved the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on the Impact and Readiness Assessment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement and revealed that he will now sign the free trade pact just few hours before the ratification.

The President, who disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja, said that he will be signing the Phase one of the agreement in the course of his attendance at the Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union and 12th Extraordinary Summit on AfCFTA in Niamey, Niger Republic on Saturday, July 6-7, 2019.

President Buhari will on Saturday depart Nigeria for Niamey and will sign the pact on his arrival.

A country that signs the first level will then go into country level discussions leading to treaties after safeguards are agreed to.

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

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stated that in accepting the reports as submitted, President Buhari made it clear that Nigerian government will be seeking to include terms that engender the development of policies that promote African production, among other benefits.

Buhari said: “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.

“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 had in June 27, 2019 received the report of the report of the committee at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, and noted that AfCFTA “will have both negative and positive impact for the Nigerian economy.”

With the signing of the free trade deal, Nigeria would become the 53 country out of the 55 countries in the continent that endorsed the agreement.

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) which is championing the free trade agreement, has set aside $1 billion as shock absorber for the first countries that will sign and ratified the agreement.

With this signing of the agreement, Nigeria will benefit from the N360 billion largesse of the Afreximbank.