President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday inaugurated the Presidential Committee for Impact and Readiness Assessment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCTA) at the Presidential
Villa, Abuja.
The committee, chaired by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment and co-chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, has Minister of Budget and National Planning, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Minister of Finance, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Economic Adviser to the President, chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, president of Nigerian Association of Chambers of
Commerce and Industry and the president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as members.
Speaking at the event, the President said Nigeria would not sign any treaty without assessing its impact on the lives of its citizens, stressing that the country would henceforth break away from the past
practice where treaties were signed without positive gains.
“We are determined to break away from the past practice of committing Nigeria to treaties without a definite implementation plan to actualise the expected benefit while mitigating the risks. We cannot
go back to the days of signing agreements without understanding and planning for the consequences of such actions and our country being the worst for it.
“Few months ago, I directed a nationwide stakeholders’ engagement on the Africa Free Trade Continental Area Agreement to understand the true impact of this agreement on Nigeria and Nigerians, considering the existing domestic and regional policies as it relates to trade,”
he said.
The President said the key issues raised by stakeholders on the agreement were abuse of rules of origin, smuggling arising from difficulties in border controls and unqualified impact of legacy
preferential trade agreements.
He said other issues raised by the stakeholders include low capacity and capability of local businesses to conduct international trade, costly finance, and insufficient energy and transport logistics
infrastructure.
He said, however, that the present administration’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) would address the issues.
