Melvin Onwubuke
Nigeria is to begin the formal export of locally produced commodities to South Africa, Rwanda, Cameroon, and Kenya from next month under the Guided Trade Initiative of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
this was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of, the National Action Committee on AfCFTA, Olusegun Awolowo, while Speaking on the sidelines of the Abuja Stakeholders Workshop on the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol, on Thursday.
He told journalists that though trading under the main AfCFTA had yet to start, the secretariat of the program had introduced the Guided Trade Initiative.
The African Continental Free Trade Area is a free trade agreement established among 54 of the 55 African Union nations, creating the largest free trade area in the world by the number of participating countries.
Although Nigeria’s producers are currently exporting products to these countries on an informal basis, starting in April the companies of Nigeria will officially and formally commence their commodity exports under the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement.
He said, “We haven’t started trading in AfCFTA, we are duly going through the protocols. But recently the AfCFTA secretariat itself launched what they call the Guided Trade Initiative to get some countries to start trading outside their regional blocks.
“We’ve signed onto it and I think that by the end of April, we are taking a few companies, big, medium, and small enterprises to actually launch trading in Africa. All we are doing now is that we are going through and signing all the protocols, as well as finding a way how to implement them.
“So we are now at the stage of implementation. Therefore, trading hasn’t really commenced under AfCFTA. It is not an overnight thing, you have to go through all the protocols, sign them, and agree.
“However, we are hoping that we are able to start trading under the GTI, not on the main AfCFTA itself, by the end of April. So it will be on record that Nigeria has now started exporting officially and formally, because, of course, informal trade is going on anyway.”
When asked to list some of the countries that had also signed onto the GTI scheme which Nigeria would formally start exporting products, Awolowo replied, “We are going to South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, and Rwanda. This is under the Guided Trade Initiative that was brought by AfCFTA, knowing that trade agreements take long.
“In fact, this AfCFTA is the fastest one. How long did it take the World Trade Organisation to get on the ground? They are still signing protocols up till today. But this is the fastest one and to fast-track it, that is what the GTI is all about.
“It is an initiative that enables countries to choose. Let’s take the companies and let them actually export from the various ports. Then we test the capacities of the ports, the capacities of the shipments and the capacities of cargoes. Then the private sector can fully buy into it. So that’s what is going to happen.”
The Africa Continental Free Trade Area, with the aim of boosting inter-African trade, promoting economic development, and creating a more attractive market in Africa, entered into force on 30 May 2019, after it was set up in March 2018.
