MON 15 NOV, 2021-theGBJournal- ‘’Under the African Continental Free Trade Area, we can double our intra-Africa trade by 2030, reduce our reliance on imports and therefore create more jobs within the continent,’’ says Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari while addressing dignitaries Monday at the Intra-Africa Trade Fair (IATF) holding in Durban, South Africa.
‘’We cannot achieve this goal by talking alone. The implementation will be a difficult journey. But all challenges are surmountable if both the public and private sectors collaborate.’’
The President during the address provided insight on what major stakeholders must to support his projection.
He said; ‘’Governments must support local entrepreneurs to build scale and therefore improve productivity.
This means providing incentives to encourage our businesses to formalise and comply with laid down regulations.
Free Trade must also be Fair. And fairness can only be achieved when there is full compliance with regulations especially those relating to rules of origin.
The AFCFTA is for “made-in-Africa” products and services.
Africa must be a marketplace where no country is left behind. As we implement, we must ensure that we create jobs and enhance revenues for all parties. We must leverage on one another’s strengths to succeed.
Our business people must key into existing regional value chains or build new ones, either to extend operations into the higher value segments of their industries or to satisfy the Area’s rules of origin requirements. The Intra-Africa Trade Fair is uniquely positioned to help in these areas.’’
He said Nigeria has come to Durban in full force to actively participate in the very important trade fair and take full advantage of all the opportunities it provides.
‘’ We have streamlined the country’s participation under one-roof to enable you access all the information you need.
As many of you are aware, in the past five years, Nigeria has made significant strides towards the diversification of her economy from an oil revenue dependent country to a nation with diverse revenue sources.
We were able to achieve this by putting in place fiscal, monetary and trade policies that support investments and investors in key sectors such as Agriculture, Mining, Telecommunications and Digital Economy, Banking and Financial services, tourism, and manufacturing.
We also introduced reforms in key institutions as well as policies to fight corruption and ease the way of doing business in Nigeria.’’
The IATF is the key event boosting trade in Africa. The event brings together an array of professionals under one roof.
In 2021, IATF’s theme will focus on the newly-launched African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – a single market for goods and services across 55 countries, aimed at boosting trade and investment.
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