•No information on what goods Nigerian can export—Muda Yusuf
•Eight AfCFTA members in ‘guided trade’– Customs
Despite being among the last African countries to ratify the trade agreement for African economic integration, Nigeria is yet to meet or complete the mandatory trading requirements for the actual take-off and trading on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) platform. PAUL OGBUOKIRI reports
Nigeria as 34th member of AfCFTA
The Federal Government of Nigeria deposited the instrument of ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA) on December 5, 2020 becoming the 34th member state to formally ratify the treaty.
The deposit came an hour before the opening of a summit of African Heads of States, where they proclaimed the Johannesburg Declaration formally fixing trading to start on January 1, 2021 as earlier scheduled.
The African Union Commission’s Trade and Industry Commissioner, Ambassador Albert Muchanga, received the instrument from a Nigerian delegation at the Commission’s headquarters in Adddis Ababa.
However, reports indicate that Nigeria, which is being touted by experts as the likely greatest beneficiary of the AfCFTA is still foot-dragging in meeting the requirements needed to participate.
According to a document obtained by Sunday Telegraph, about 10 African countries have all met the requirements. The countries include; Ghana, Tunisia, Egypt, Cameroon, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Mauritius. These countries have already been accredited as participating nations.
As these countries concluded their mandatory trading requirements, they are set to begin trade on the AfCFTA platforms, a development that may shrink Nigeria’s shipping industry revenue by over 20 per cent downward if it fails to complete mandatory trading requirements to participate, according to shipping experts.
Speaking, a shipping expert and President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Chief Tony Iju Nwabunike, said that Nigeria’s inability to join other African countries that have completed mandatory trading requirements would see the revenue of the nation’s shipping revenue shrink by 20 per cent if not more, saying Nigeria has more work to do in order to position itself as the maritime hub for AfCFTA.
According to him, the Nigerian port sector, road, rails, inland infrastructure, coupled with the perennial and embarrassing gridlock on the nation’s port access roads, may not cope with the anticipated increase in economic activities occasioned by AfCFTA.
“Comoros, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Somalia will experience a surge in traffic through their ports by 2030 as a result of AfCFTA. If the necessary infrastructure projects are implemented, Nigeria’s maritime fleet is projected to increase by 70 per cent for bulk and 90 per cent for container cargoes,” he said.
For Nigeria to benefit fully from AfCFTA, and assume the position of maritime hub, he said there should be conscientious efforts by government and the private sector to carry out some quick intervention measures.
He said the first is to fix the road on the major trade corridor connecting Nigeria and West African neighbours while the second is the automation of port processes and procedure with the establishment of a single window, adding that there is need to provide scanner at the port, fast track the development of Lekki Deep Sea Port and improve the agricultural value chain.
He hinted that if the indicators were implemented, they would spur economic growth and prosperity and eradicate poverty on the African continent and boost job creation, eliminate barriers to trade, facilitate free movement of goods produced by African countries and boost inter-regional trade.
He added that the scheme would also improve competitiveness by exploiting opportunities, boosting intra-African trade, which would lead to more shipping activities for Nigeria.
Closing gaps in standardisation
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the agri-business sector have expressed concerns that the lack of a standardisation policy for the country may deny Nigeria the much-expected benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement whose implementation had already commenced.
They said that Nigerian SMEs seemed unprepared to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the agreement because they are still lagging behind in global best practices.
The stakeholders at a one-day consultative workshop on the development of the national Agricultural Commodity Standards Grading System (AgCSGS) and Policy Framework, said a lot still needed to be done in terms of the quality of products and services SMEs supply, particularly agricultural commodities.
According to the Director-General, Nigeria Agri-Business Group (NABG), Mr. Manzo Maigari, compliance and alignment with the global benchmark for standards and trading is currently lacking among Nigerian businesses.
He said: “But in modern business and trade today, people want to be sure of the quality, the sanitation, and the hygiene of what you are selling and if they cannot, be sure that you cannot have access to their markets.
“We can play locally and manage and do whatever we want to do but if we want to sell internationally, if we want to be competitive in agriculture globally, then we must comply and align ourselves to global benchmarks for standards and trading. And this is what does not exist currently in Nigeria.”
Maigari, however, said, as custodians of agri-business in the country, NABG had taken the initiative to bring stakeholders together both in the public and private sectors with a view to crafting a policy that would enable Nigeria to compete favourably in Africa and across the world.
He added: “You already are aware that our efforts to export have always been frustrated because you hear rejects here and there when our products are exported. You hear that they have been rejected and the whole idea has to do with the fact that we do not have a policy framework that ensures standards, quality, and certification.”
Also speaking at the forum, themed, “Unlocking Our Agri-Commodity Market: Setting the Appropriate Value for Nigeria’s Agri-Produce Exports”, Executive Secretary, National Action Committee of the AfCFTA/Special Adviser to the President on AfCFTA, Mr. Francis Anatogu, said training and capacity building needed to be sustained for SMEs to play in the global market.
He, however, noted that despite the progress so far recorded in the implementation of continental trade agreement, actual trading among countries was yet to commence.
Kenya, Ghana, others set the pace
While government officials in Nigeria still deny that actual trading has commenced, Sunday Telegraph confirmed that Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda were already doing business on the AfCFTA platform.
According to an official statement issued by the Kenya Ministry of Industrialization
Trade and Enterprises, and obtained by our correspondent, the first Kenyan company to start trading under AfCFTA, is the Associated Battery Manufacturing EA Ltd.
The company exported Kenyan-made Exide batteries to Ghana through the Port of Tema in Ghana on September 23, 2022 which marked the East African country’s formal start of trading under the AfCFTA.
The statement also added that Kenya has identified several products for the AfCFTA market, which include tea, confectionery, leather bags, incinerators, beaded products, vehicular filters, textiles, sisal fiber, avocados and fresh produce.
“Kenya and Ghana are keen on using the AfCFTA Agreement to create jobs and market for their goods and services, thereby keeping wealth within the African continent”, the statement added.
To further buttress the fact that she has also kicked-off trading, our correspondent also cited a statement issued by Rwanda’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.
In the statement, Rwanda confirmed that she exported the first consignment of goods under AfCFTA to Ghana on September 30, 2022.
The first consignment of Coffee from Igire Coffee Limited was flown to Accra by the national carrier, RwandAir, marking the formal start of preferential trading under the AfCFTA agreement by the East African country.
However, President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Engr. Mansour Ahmed, noted that on Nigeria’s part, processes are still ongoing in terms of finalizing the procedures on various frameworks and guidelines that will facilitate her entrance into the continent-wide trade platform.
He disclosed that there have been efforts with various agencies such as the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) to encourage SMEs that have been trading across the continent to formalize trading.
“The AfCFTA process is still going on in terms of finalizing the rules and regulations, procedures and the various framework and guidelines that will facilitate a continent wide trade, but even then, individual countries may be working with each other under the current trade relations and try to explore specific opportunities.
“I am not surprised that Kenya and Ghana have particularly started exporting products like Coffee and others. We would do so and of course this would continue between different countries”, he explained.
Speaking, the CEO of Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE); Dr Muda Yusuf, said Nigerian stakeholders, especially business people are still not adequately informed about the protocols and what goods they can export with free duty to our African countries.
He also confirmed that protocols on trade in goods and trade in services in Nigeria have not yet been firmed-up, even as he noted that the development by other African countries is a wake-up call to Nigeria.
“I think it is a wakeup call and a challenge to us to step up to this opportunity of this AfCFTA. Although we signed reluctantly, I think we need to take full advantage. As we speak now, I am not sure there is adequate information for the stakeholders, especially business people, to know what goods they can export free of duty to these various countries.
We need that full information of what is obtained in the protocol because of the protocol on Trade in Goods and Trade in Services. We need to disseminate information on all those protocols.
Concerning the protocol on trade in Services for instance, I think they are just finalizing that. I’m not sure they have even firmed it up. “Whatever it is, we need to accelerate the dissemination of information to stakeholders, so that we can begin to take steps.
Our institutions such as Customs and the rest don’t appear to be quite ready because there is no indication that the Customs are quite ready. There was a time the Customs CG was saying AfCFTA will affect revenue. You can imagine his mindset as a major stakeholder. All that needs to change. So, that we actually do a lot more with Af- CFTA,” Yusuf said.
However, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Comptroller in charge of Trade and Tariff, Comptroller Anthony Ayalogu has disclosed that the current trade between countries under AfCFTA is a ‘guided trade’ which was implored to test-run the viability of the agreement for necessary corrections before full implementation. “The trading they have had is what we call a Guided Trade. It is the assessment of AfCFTA by some countries.
What we are experiencing now is not an actual trade. It is a guided trade. The trade is being guided to see the problem that could be arising when this trade starts properly. About eight countries were selected but one declined. So, we have seven countries who have started this guided trade”, he said.
He said: “Nigeria is not among them because we are not ready. They were selected with some criteria which have to do with regional economic bloc and the sizes”.
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