After 39 years in bag making for local and foreign markets, the efforts of Chinwe Ezenwa, founder of Le Look Nigeria Limited, a company specialising in bag making and capacity development, have started paying off.
Ezenwa’s Le Look became the first company to receive a Nigeria-AfCFTA Certificate of Origin, enabling businesses to trade under AfCFTA protocol.
She represents a female entrepreneur and was part of the first AfCFTA shipment by exporting bags to Kenya.
“My journey in making Nigerian bags started 39 years ago and I have been fighting to promote made-in-African goods when people dislike anything made-in-Africa, especially Nigeria. Today, our efforts have taken centre stage in the world. We are recognised by the Office of AfCFTA and partners in Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia,” Chinwe Ezenwa, founder of Le Look Nigeria Limited told BusinessDay in Lagos.
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She has been in the business of bag making and training people for over three decades and said she looks forward to using the opportunity provided by AfCFTA to foster training and capacity building in the maritime industry to encourage people to look into the export market.
“I was overwhelmed to become a trailblazer, a recognition given to me by the Nigeria AfCFTA Coordination Office, but it comes with responsibilities and my commitment is to train and empower people through export trade, enable people to become earners and self-reliant,” she said.
According to her, makers of Nigerian goods are now penetrating seriously to countries within the region and the guided trade initiative under the AfCFTA protocol means Nigerians need to be consistent, resilient, and innovative without waiting for government.
Encouraging Nigerian businesses to leverage the opportunity provided by AfCFTA, she said penetrating African markets in countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Ghana was easier compared to European and American markets.
“The markets in these countries are huge because those countries don’t have many industries and Nigeria’s huge population gives it a comparative advantage to gain from the AfCFTA trade area. We only need to grow our industries and make our people more productive by creating efficient work hours,” Ezenwa said.
On what AfCFTA is going to do differently, Ezenwa said it will checkmate adulteration because the certificate of origin will certify Nigeria as the country of origin of products originating from Nigeria, which shows that 80 percent of the raw materials used in making the product came from Nigeria.
“It is all about rules of origin. If you take your bags to Europe, a Chinese will jack it up from there and move on but if the protocol is implemented the way it should be, they will not have such a chance.
“It will be Africa versus Africa. So, you must prove that 80 percent of your raw material is from Nigeria, and that qualifies us to secure the certificate of origin because we need it to trade under AfCFTA. They made it conditional, and it is good because it would have been an all-comers market if they didn’t and that would be like creating the market for the Chinese and others,” she explained.
Read also: Nigeria first shipment under AfCFTA, major milestone, but challenges remain
Ezenwa said that the AfCFTA Office visited their factory and saw that the Adire fabric, Akwete, and Aso oke fabric used in making Le Look bags were sourced in Nigeria except for 20 percent of the raw materials such as zip are imported.
According to her, a Chinese-owned company can participate in the AfCFTA trade, but it must come down to Africa to set up its company and also ensure that 80 percent of the raw materials are sourced locally.
She urged the National AfCFTA Coordination Office to continue its advocacy role of ensuring that the protocols are implemented and respected.
“They shouldn’t relent because there are serious trade challenges even between Nigeria and Ghana. I had an ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) certificate but shipping to Ghana was a problem some months ago. Our goods were held due to issues around competition, but Ghana would not do such under AfCFTA because there are sanctions for disobeying the protocol.
She said the Guided Trade Initiative will help the exporter to deliver to other countries on zero duty.
Ezenwa said that Customs is seeing how to give us Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status for seamless import and export.
“This means that our goods would go through the green lane without delay, but we must earn it and it would require a lot of auditing, and integrity because they do not want to give you that certificate and you use it for other things,” Ezenwa added.
