Governor of Jigawa state, Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar has said that tax rights under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) must be mutually beneficial, including cross-jurisdiction income or profit flows such as withholding taxes on payments to non-residents.
The Governor who also doubles as the Chairman , National Economic Council Export Promotion Committee who noted this at the Subnational strategy workshop in Abuja on Wednesday said the Federal Government is expected to prevent distortions and discrimination in trade and investment.
According to him, by improving the ease of doing business nationally and sub-nationally by harmonising policies, laws, and regulatory procedures to attract large-scale investment, increased access to credit, access to land, access to labour and skill, business registration, tax payment.
He said the Federal Government is expected to ramp up skills acquisition for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to improve their readiness for sub-national participation in the competitive market emerging from the AfCFTA.
On benefit of the AfCFTA, the Governor said at the Federal level, Nigeria is already utilizing regional trade opportunities, contributing approximately 76% of total trading volumes in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region.
“We strongly believe this number can improve when sub-nationals participate actively in regional trade.
“The increase of direct investment and creation of new business opportunities for multiple sectors within each sub-national’s economy including the distribution and logistics supply chain, as well as transportation infrastructure by putting in place progressive policies and simplified customs procedures, making sub-nationals and intra-Africa trade more enticing for domestic producers.
Also, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning , Mrs Zainab Ahmed said Nigeria has undertaken a series of actions to enable it fully exploit the opportunities of the AfCFTA .
