AFCFTA: Nigeria to establish trade remedies authority

The Nigerian government says efforts are ongoing to establish trade remedies authority to enforce rules of origin and tighten borders against fraudulent invoicing that could arise from the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA).

Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, disclosed this during a recent visit to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, as part of the nationwide sensitisation by the National Action Committee on the AFCFTA.

According to Adebayo, the Federal Government is committed to establishing a competent authority to administer the AFCFTA rules of origin as well as automating the process for managing exporter and product registration.

The minister said the National Action Committee, which he chairs, is collaborating with the National Trade Facilitation Committee domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to facilitate the execution of the regional trade facilitation roadmap.

He highlighted the AfCFTA implementation plans to include the domestication of the AFCFTA agreement, border enforcement and rules of origin enforcement, trade facilitation and ease of doing business, production and service capacity growth, power and trade logistics infrastructure, market access, skills and human capacity development, and quality infrastructure.

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Governor Sanwo-Olu on his part assured of Lagos’ willingness to domesticate the policies of the AFCFTA to accelerate the actualisation of the recently launched Lagos 30-year development plan.

According to the governor, the Lagos State government would explore all the opportunities in the AFCFTA agreement to grow its revenue and GDP and create employment for youth.

Speaking with journalists shortly after the meeting with the governor, the secretary of the National Action Committee, Francis Anatogu said: “Our strategy is to work with states based on their areas of comparative advantages and Lagos State has been identified to have trade strength in ICT, telecommunication, transportation and financial services”.