Nigeria is preferring to laugh last here. It is bringing to the table a population of over 200 million to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. A tweet from the Nigerian Presidency wraps up the whole debate about why Nigeria has refused to be part of the deal.
‘‘Nigeria will sign the #AfCFTA Agreement at the upcoming Extraordinary Summit of the African Union in Niamey, Niger. Recall that the Pres. Cttee on the Impact & Readiness Assessment of the Agreement Establishing the AfCFTA submitted its Report to Pres @MBuhari Thur June 27, 2019.
The tweet goes further to quote Nigerian President as saying that:
“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.” — President @MBuhari, June 27, 2019
It further stated that:
“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.” — President @MBuhari, June 27, 2019 #AfCFTA
10:37 PM — 2 Jul 2019
“Let me state unequivocally that trade is important for us as a nation and to all nations. Economic progress is what makes the world go around. Our position is very simple, we support free trade as long as it is fair and conducted on an equitable basis.” — President @MBuhari
10:43 PM — 2 Jul 2019
Here are The Key Points You Should Know About the AfCFTA Agreement:
- The CFTA is a free trade agreement among African countries, who are signatories to the Agreement. The CFTA is consistent with the World Trade Organisation rules relating to Free Trade Agreements. A free-trade agreement is an agreement among a group of two or more countries whereby the duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce are eliminated on substantially all the trade between the countries in products originating from the countries.
SEE ALSO: More Revealing Facts About The African Free Trade Agreement And Why Nigeria Is Out
The Key Targets Of The Agreement
- The Agreement wants to create a single market for goods and services in Africa and to permit more people to move around any country in Africa with minimum visa requirements.
- It also seeks to create a market that is less free from custom duty and tariffs.
- It seeks to make the movement of money and capital across African countries freer.
- The Agreement also hopes that, if it ever becomes successful, there would be established a Continental Customs Union that would make issues of customs duty and levy less demanding in Africa.
- The Agreement seeks better ways of bringing more industries to Africa as well as opening up its agricultural and food sectors.
What The Agreement Intends To Disrupt for African Businesses
Free Up Trade
The Agreement, when it comes in force on July 7, 2019, would finally put an end to tariffs charged on goods imported from African countries that have signed the Agreement. Therefore, countries that have signed the Agreement are required to set out the products or goods that they are willing to forfeit tariffs on. They are also expected to list out the import duties to be charged on products or goods that they are not ready to fully forfeit tariffs or import duties on.
The Agreement, in other words, would allow the signatory countries to offer preferential treatment to goods imported from other African countries that are also signatories to the Agreement. However, the Agreement has listed some steps to be followed in making sure that this preferential treatment fully benefits any signatory country. In any case, this preferential treatment would not be applied where the goods or products in question are meant to remedy any defect in trade.
The Implication of Nigeria’s Signature
With this proposed signature, Nigeria is signaling an end to the drama of Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy refusing to sign the agreement citing abuse and destruction of its local industries. What remains is for Nigeria’s Parliament to ratify the Agreement in order to fully benefit from the Agreement.
So far, 25 African countries have deposited their instruments of AfCFTA ratification with the African Union Commission. They include Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Niger, Chad, Congo Republic, Djibouti, Guinea, eSwatini, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, SouthAfrica, Uganda, IvoryCoast, Senegal, Togo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia SierraLeone, Sahrawi Republic, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, and SaoTomé and Principe
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.