…Says Nigeria‘ll leverage on AfCFTA to expand its goods, services to S/Africa, kenya others
By Dele Ogbodo
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, has expressed high optimism that with the ratification, adoption and implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), goods and services from Nigeria will become more readily available and competitive in many African countries of Africa: South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and many others.
Fielding questions at the sideline of the technical review committee made up of comprehensive stakeholders from across MDAs in Abuja, on Thursday, she said the Federal Government through the support of President Bola Tinubu, is de-emphasising attention from crude oil which used to be the country’s main stay to non-oil exports.
The Minister, added: “Oil has been the mainstay of the Nigerian economy for many years, but for us, we now lay emphasis on non-oil exports…and the reason is simple-huge proportion of our economy is agrarian, where we can create jobs in tech sector, manufacturing and minerals.
While expressing her excitement at the development, she said Nigeria stands at great opportunity to as according to her, AfCFTA is a really good place to do that.
If the agreement is finally signed and adopted by African Union, she added that the agreement focuses on SMEs, on female-led businesses, on young people, young entrepreneur-led businesses.
According to her, the Ministry is using it as part of its strategy to leverage on deepening its non-oil exports.
Oduwole, said: “So, across the world and Africa and with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we have done the mapping of the demand for Nigerian goods in Southern Africa and in Eastern Africa.
“The Ministry will be launching the market intelligence tool next week to give in particularly Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) that don’t have enough access to research across the continent.
“We also did a digital survey, a digital mapping, a directory.
“We put out a poll about three weeks ago for Nigerian Fintechs, for Nigerian services, tech-enabled businesses, to see where they want to go, and the empiricals came out saying that there are about 5 countries in particular, as a matter of priority, that service-led businesses, tech-enabled businesses from Nigeria are trading, and that was part of our work as digital trade champions.”
According to her, Nigerian businesses are expanding to Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana. We also have a strong interest in Egypt and Rwanda.
“And so, these are the kinds of practical tools that take us from policy to performance.”
Asked on regulatory and trade facilitation, she said, President Tinubu, has already inaugurated, the National Single Window Project, adding that project is live now.
Excitedly, the project, she added is being led by the chair of FIRS, Mr. Zacc Adedeji, Crimson Logic, the Singaporean world leader, is our technical partner in this regard.
That project, the Minister said has eluded Nigeria for a number of years, but it’s well underway now. What it brings is a lot of transparency and efficiency to our ports.
“It’s a single portal where everybody, from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to NAFDAC, SON to customs, to Immigration, work on a single portal.
“That’s the National Single Window Architecture. So, whether from the payment side, from the documentation side, that is one example of digital public infrastructure leveraging for Nigerian economy.
“There are other regulatory and bureaucratic and legislative interventions that the government of Nigeria has been pursuing and reviewing.
“We’ve been working very hard with private sector stakeholders. You know that from PBEC, we’ve worked on ease of doing business in terms of the regulations to make it easier, faster and shorter.
“But in the current dispensation, we’re prioritizing domestic investors, we have a domestic investor summit coming up next month to speak to the medium cadre of businesses.
“You know that we’ve worked on platinum business champions, which are the companies that gross over a billion dollars per annum, the very big businesses in Nigeria.
“And a lot of regulatory and bureaucratic work on moving things in terms of ease of doing business for MSMEs.
“But those medium-sized businesses, and we’ve started that engagement with them, they want access to more cost-effective capital, cheaper cost of capital.
“They want to make sure that the logistics terrain for them, for their businesses, is better. The export expansion ground, there’s some of the issues, the tariff structure to make sure that the cost, the tariffs for inputs coming in is lower than inputs of finished goods.”
She admitted, perhaps as a result of external shock that Nigeria nay Africa are at cross road, adding: ”Nigeria, and indeed Africa, is on the cusp, we are at an inflection point, President Tinubu has been able to stabilize this economy by all the macro reforms that you know he’s put in place since May of 2023.
“The removal of the subsidy, the unification of the Naira, you’ve seen the fiscal reforms in the tax space, you’ve seen the signing of the Investments and Securities Act, you’ve seen the reforms on the NNPC.”
According to her, these are things that have stabilized the country, explaining that Tinubu has stated that we should focus on Made in Nigeria for all of us, both government and Nigerians, should put Nigeria first in terms of our consumption.
“That means we have to produce more and we have to produce more competitively. Now how does digital trade come in?
“The President was commended at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in February as a digital trade co-champion.
“He was awarded that title. And what that means is that we’re leading Africa, along with South Africa and Kenya in delivering digital trade protocol. Now that protocol is the first of its kind, that framework in the world.
“And if you look at it, it speaks to how Africa can lead in payment solutions, digital public infrastructure and I have earlier mentioned the single window and also making sure that whether it’s identity in the government space, these are the things that enable businesses to thrive across the continent.
“So for instance, when we simplify payment systems and the Central Banks work together and enable like AFREXIM Bank solution, the PAPS, that’s a payment system that lets businesses pay in Naira and it’s received in in Rand all across the world.
“Now, the reason why we are prioritizing the digital trade protocol is because this is where Nigerian youth are competitive.
“Out of about 12 Unicorns on the continent, about 50% are of Nigerian extraction. Nigerian businesses, not just FinTech, where we are clear leaders, EduTech, HealthTech, all manner of businesses that are tech-enabled, Nigerian young people are doing very well.”
On export from the country, she added: “We’re also enabling exports of services. And what that means is that Nigerian youths can have jobs in Nigeria, outsource jobs.
“They can work in Nigeria with power and a device and broadband. They can have jobs in Nigeria for which they can earn foreign exchange just by using their laptops or their phones and their devices.
“We are on a good time zone. We’re an English-speaking population and we have the entrepreneurial, energized young people that can actually benefit.
This is a huge business across the world. India, Thailand have used this to sort of encourage productive jobs for their young people.
“So technology is an enabler, however you slice it. AI and the digital era is here. So in terms of digitizing public infrastructure and public services and also enabling young people’s businesses which are infused with technology and AI to be catalyzed across the region.
“It gives a huge opportunity, particularly now with the global headwinds for Nigerian businesses to be at an inflection point and thrive.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Regional Bureau for Africa, Dr. Ifeyinwa Ogo, while answering questions from journalists, said the stakeholder’s review of AfCFTA implementation will yield benefits for the country.
She said: “This is because it allows us to go in-depth into obligation for the country, identify the extent to which the country has complied, understands the successes, understand what we can learn and then understands the opportunity to improve.
“There is also a need to identify within the country, the various focal point institutionally that are responsible for the implementation of the various parts of the agreement and so the exercise helps us to identify real specifics, who does what why and how and what is the required mechanism are to coordinate more effectively.
On challenges, Ogo, said Nigeria has done quite well in implementing the gazetting of the schedule for the implementation of trade, goods and services has been concluded.
“We are also supporting the country to sync through opportunities to attract investment into the AfCFTA, we are also thinking of how to trade more in trade and services and commerce …the country is currently a good champion in this area.
“I think the real question is how we find way to address those challenges and that is exactly what we are trying to do through this workshop.”
