AfCTA and Trade Facilitation in Nigeria: Issues and Prospects

Trade values and volumes are important indicators of an economy’s potential to grow sustainably. Howbeit, a country’s trade facilitation, and expansion cannot be discussed within the context of a single-story narrative. It must necessarily include a broader conversation of local productive capacities and review the gains and pains of agreements between or among countries to trade across contiguous and non-contiguous borders and compositions of tradeables.

The gains of the AfCFTA may be less for an undiversified exporting country like Nigeria, which relies primarily on oil exports, raising concerns that the country may be flooded with low-priced goods, complicating efforts to resuscitate moribund local businesses, especially the small and medium-scale enterprises. Additionally, changing trade dynamics will cause the country's future competitive advantages to be different by 2030, a situation that requires that trade agreements must reflect the future (rather than the past), and their conceptualization must provide market clarity.

AfCFTA promises value chain development, better competitiveness, agricultural value chain development, and structural change to member states, in addition to resolving the weak and challenging intra-African trade challenges.

It features insights from prominent academic scholars, industry regulators, frontline trade operators, and 21st-century industry professionals, assessing the threats and prospects of the free trade area for Nigeria and other members of the agreement. Over the last fourteen months, the manuscript went through a series of post submission reviews, including reviews by the project supervisor - the very resourceful Professor Fatai Aremu, external examiners, trade experts, researchers, and institutional reviews by Proshare Research and the Editorial team of the National Institute, Kuru.

The book provides a useful guide to Nigeria’s National Action Committee on the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement and other relevant policy actors on the underlining issues and prospects of the AfCFTA as well as its implications for trade facilitation in Nigeria. It further underscores the tendencies for language blocs to influence trade facilitation within the member countries and its implications for Nigeria. A language bloc is a regional group that interacts more with members from the same language community than those from a different language community. I connect the links between trade facilitation, investment in critical infrastructure, and sectors of priority and vulnerability.

‘Olufemi M. AWOYEMI

Founder, Proshare LLC