Stakeholders of the African Continental Free Trade Area have expressed concern that Nigerians are not taking advantage of all the opportunities available to them.
According to The Punch, the stakeholders who participated in a roundtable discussion on the AfCFTA and Trade-in-Services on Tuesday, hosted by the Centre for International Private Enterprises, disclosed that providing services under the ACFTA can yield financial benefits.
After the event, the consultant for the Economic Community of West African States’ Common Investment Market, Prof. Jonathan Aremu, said that while Nigerians were accustomed to import duties and other procedures associated with the exportation of goods, they were not used to trade-in services.
Additionally, he stated that the main goal of the conference was to empower more Nigerian professionals who aspire to enter the industry.
“We are familiar with import duties, cross-border transactions, and various exporting and documentation processes. However, most people are not familiar with trade-in services.
“Given that many people are unaware of these issues when they arise under the AfCFTA, CIPE states that you can trade under services just as much as you can, and then work to develop the capacity of Nigerian professionals who wish to pursue that.”
Aremu revealed that 60% of the country’s gross domestic product came from trade in services.
“What I have accomplished so far is to inform people about the fact that, despite oil, trade in services is growing into a significant industry that accounts for nearly 60% of GDP. It is the industry that the public is ignorant of and in which we have a significant competitive advantage. We must support this industry,” Aremu continued.
He said, “You can sell your tradable commodities, which are services, online while sitting in your office here. Additionally, you can charge for your services and receive export revenue from visitors.
“Again, though, what are the advantages if there are opportunities here? Nigeria has pledged to participate in trade and services under the World Trade Organisation, but we have increased our commitment to AfCFTA in terms of trading in services.”
Earlier, the Country Director and Program Director of CIPE, Lola Adekanye, stated that effective preparation, which includes bringing the private sector together, was necessary for Nigeria to succeed in the AfCFTA.
“If Nigeria doesn’t plan well, the country will miss out on all the benefits of the AfCFTA; it’s not just about trade, it’s about development,” the speaker stated.
One of the issues with trade in services, according to the Program Director at CIPE Africa, Mary Odongo, was limited access to financing.
“Among the bottlenecks are inadequate infrastructure policies and limited access to financing. To tackle this, we can form a coalition comprising all the trade-in-service participants in the ecosystem and utilize this coalition to tackle their issues.
“Services are very important, but we tend to focus more on the trade of goods because they are intangible and difficult to see. Furthermore, it should be noted that trade-in services make up slightly more than 50% of Nigeria’s GDP.”
She claimed that the most important thing is to deal with the difficulties associated with trade-in services. She also stated that more discussion was needed to address the issue of power supply and the underfunding of MSMEs.
