Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt to establish free trade zones –FG

The Federal Government said on Thursday that Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt were pushing to establish a free trade zone among their economies.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, said this while briefing newsmen in Abuja on the just-concluded Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) held in Kenya in August.

Onyeama said that the four countries had begun putting in place mechanisms to facilitate the creation of a free trade zone among them and added that the move would enhance intra-African trade.

His words: “Nigeria is taking the lead in pushing for a group of four countries – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa.

“We are pushing towards a continental free trade; to open up a free trade area within the continent, so that initiative which Nigeria is really driving, is really moving ahead quite strongly.

“The quadripartite group, as it were, met to start really putting in place the building blocks for that.

“The African Union is trying to have a free trade zone for Africa which they hope to come on-stream from next year, but very often, with bureaucracies, it may take some time.

“So, the four countries want to start pushing ahead among their economies; these are the largest economies on the continent.

“But now we have the four of them already working towards this free trade zone and then other countries can come on board later”.

Onyeama also reaffirmed that the current administration was working hard to ensure that Nigeria was among the top100 countries with a conducive business environment.

He recalled that a presidential committee had been set up to look into the challenges that hindered the ease of doing business in the country.

“As you know, there is a World Bank Index for the ease of doing business and Nigeria is languishing in 169th position which is very dire.

“We want to diversify our economy; we want people to invest in our country and they are not finding it easy; there is a lot we have to do to make our country more business friendly.

“Mr President has taken that on with a new presidential initiative that he is rolling out.

“It is hoped that within one year, we will move up 20 places from 169 and within three years with the measure that are being taken, we will be in the top 100 countries for ease of doing business.

“He set up a committee and an inter-ministerial group under the chairmanship of the Vice President to get all the relevant ministries to put in place the structures and mechanism to make doing business in the country easy.

“ We understand where there are bottlenecks and we have set ourselves a target and what is important is the political will,” he said.

The minister explained that the TICAD IV served as a platform for dialogue and developing partnerships.

He said that some of the gains of the conference included Japan’s commitment towards assisting Nigeria in the development of its security, health and infrastructure sectors.

“We have the goodwill of Japan that has expressed the willingness to engage with us in the area of diversification in particular infrastructure development with them emphasising quality infrastructure.

“They want to help us in our security challenges; they have been helping us in the past and they are committed to continue to do so.

“In the health sector, they are particularly keen to engage with Nigeria. They see Nigeria as a very important trading partner.

“The Prime Minister of Japan particularly wanted to meet with the president to establish that bond and to make a commitment of Japan to the economic development, security and health of this country,” Onyeama explained.

The TICAD was being held every five years since its inception in 1993 until the conference in 2003 decided that it should be convened every three years.

The TICAD VI held in August in Nairobi, Kenya, was the first to be held in Africa.