AfCFTA Agreement: Nigeria inching closer to securing approval of compliance – Trade Minister

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Nigeria is on the way to securing approval to ratify the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

According to information made public by the Minister of Trade, Niyi Adebayo, the country is currently in the process of securing approval to ratify the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

The Trade Minister, on his official Twitter handle @NiyiAdebayo, had welcomed the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, Mene Wamkele, to a meeting in Abuja during which the visitor was briefed on Nigeria’s efforts in compliance with the AfCFTA agreement.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, proposed to be operational in 2020, has the potential to create a continental free-trade zone with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD$3.4 trillion, according to the African Union (AU). This trade agreement, if implemented fully, would become the largest in the world.

The AfCFTA deal is one of the flagship projects of the African Union and emphasizes the reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and the facilitation of free movement of people and labour, right of residence, right of establishment, and investment.

Under the deal, member nations of the African Union vary in their preparedness to execute the requirements of the agreement and its related protocols and annexes

African countries must be willing to have open borders. This deal was questioned with the closure of Nigeria’s border with Benin and Ghana closed in August 2019, which observers say may cripple the AfCFTA’s effectiveness, especially when all the involved countries are signatories to AfCFTA.

Recall that the African Union had in August announced that the first commercial deal of AfCFTA will be taking off on January 1, 2021.

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