The Federal Government has tasked all state governments to embrace the economic opportunities that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers.
This was disclosed by Francis Anatogu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Sector, according to NAN on Thursday.
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He explained that the Federal Government wanted a buy-in and support of stakeholders in both the public and private sectors and that FG was working towards setting up AfCFTA implementation Focal Desks in states, and therefore urged state governments to explore their areas of comparative advantages for economic growth and job creation.
He said, “The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) represents the states as good channel to reach out to the state government, and that is why we have reached out to it.
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“We want them to take advantage of AfCTA, because as a Nation we need to produce what we sell, we need to invest and attract investors. To attract investors, we need good policies, infrastructure and good conditions for ease of doing business.”
Anatogu however said that although the Intra-African Trading was expected to start in January 2021, there were still several practical steps that needed to happen before the AfCFTA agreement could be fully operationalised.
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“The AfCTA is like a marathon, is a 10-year programme, which will take such a long time to achieve a full liberalisation of tariff plan. So a number of practical steps need to be taken, including the tariff rules and the tariff rates that need to be worked out,” he added.
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What you should know
- Last Thursday, Nairametrics reported that the Federal Government had urged Nigerian businesses to take advantage of the opportunity as it announced plans of a public campaign to highlight the benefits of the agreement.
- This was disclosed by Mr. Adeniyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
- Mr. Adebayo stated that Nigerian businesses could not be left out of the opportunity, as the agreement would create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc.
