The Nigerian office for Trade Negotiation, NOTN on Tuesday launched a ‘Nigerian policy roadmap’ which seeks to provide coherent plan for fueling Nigeria’s trade growth,while also positioning Nigeria to harvest full benefits of the African continental Free Trade Area.
The journal launch also seeks to ensure that Nigeria’s mechanisms of trade negotiation is working in full capacity,while also coordinating coherence of related trade policies from other relevant government agencies to achieve maximum results.
Victor Liman,the Acting Chief Trade Negotiator and director general of the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiation,NOTN in a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday said the journal would further ensure proper link up trade policy and industrial policy.
The acting director general also informed that the Trade journal seeks to provide a framework for increasing the share of trade in Gross Domestic Product,GDP to 50 percent and the workforce share employed in trade-related industries to 28 percent, by 2023.
He stated that the Nigeria’s trade policy framework seeks to provide a well-structured framework for export diversification and sustainable trade growth and development improving Nigeria’s competitiveness.
The roadmap is also built upon the foreseen complementary roles of the government in creating enabling environment for industrialisation,competitiveness and development of Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs to thrive in supply chains and compete in both the domestic and international markets.
He stated that the policy also paid further attention to standardisation which he said would enable Nigeria create huge market access in on single African market.
“If we must remove barrier on market access and harvest benefits of improved access to market,we must embrace standardisation which promotes competitiveness.”
It would be recalled that the federal government established the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiation,NOTN on 10th of May 2017.The agency since then negotiated and facilitated Nigeria’s signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area on 7th of July 2019 in Niamey,the Capital of the Republic of Benin.
