Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated a committee to assess the country’s impact and readiness for the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
The committee has the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, as its chairman. The Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari is its co-chairman.
The formation of the committee comes months after a nationwide stakeholders’ engagement to understand the true impact of the deal on Nigeria.
It was to ensure that signing onto the agreement won’t impact existing domestic and regional policies relating to trade.
Inaugurating the Committee, President Buhari said Nigeria could not afford to go back to the days of signing agreements without understanding and planning for the consequences.
“Our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP is addressing these issues, nonetheless, we are determined to break away from the past practice of committing Nigeria to treaties without a definite implementation plan to actualize the expected benefits, while mitigating the risks” he said.
“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 worse off ” he added.
The African Continental Free Trade Area is the result of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among all 55 members of the African Union.
If ratified, the agreement would result in the largest free-trade area in terms of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organization.
Source: Africafeeds.com
