Yemisi Izuora
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has said that government should as a matter of urgency develop policies that would quickly eliminate obstacles to the benefits that the country ought to derive from the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement .
Oriental News Nigeria recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, signed the AfCFTA, on July 7, 2019 at the African Union (AU) Extra Ordinary Meeting held in Niamey, Niger Republic.
The Association which was instrumental to nationwide consultation before government endorsed the Agreement, has however called on government to enhance the capacity of the manufacturing sector and indeed other economic actors to take advantage of the opportunities inherent in the continental free trade area and to, quite importantly, mitigate the multifarious risks.
In a position paper by MAN, signed by its Director General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, expected government to make the Association part of the national structures and processes that would be put in place to manage the process.
“On the side of the private sector, we need to optimize our processes and innovate to outperform our contemporaries in the other countries of Africa.
Of course, we shall work together to prevail on the Government to do its own bit by providing the conducive atmosphere.” Ajayi-Kadir said.
More importantly, MAN, notes that infrastructure challenges such as poor electricity supply, deplorable road network and lack of adequate transportation system (rail network) etc. that constitute the supply constraints should be removed, while policies to improve the macroeconomic environment be immediately put in place and existing ease of doing business initiatives strengthened, especially to lower cost and grow existing capacities.
According to Ajayi-Kadir, “To aid the competitiveness of local manufacturers, government should strongly address the issue of multiple taxation and over regulation of the production sector which has added to the existing myriad of challenges. For an open trade arrangement of this nature, we recommend that Industries that would be negatively impacted by the influx of goods should be supported to invest in new areas and displaced labour retrained to take on new employments or vocation.”
The MAN also noted that of urgent attention is for the Government to initiate policies that would encourage startups in the Small and Medium Scale Enterprise, as the sector contributes over 80 per cent of the Gross Domestic product, which if properly incentivized and supported could be able to to ramp up production and total exports of the country.
“As the country commits to this, in addition to the President’s call for fair trade, we believe that the Government will back her words with action by putting the necessary measures in place to prevent an abuse of agreement. In addressing the issue of the country’s porous border which encouraged smuggling of foreign goods, there could not have been a better time to adopt technology-based border policing and surveillance to check abuse of the intra-Africa Trade protocols and trade malpractices.
Overall, we should all work towards having a beneficial trade engagement in Africa. Effectively mitigating the risks and taking advantage of the opportunities of a 1.2 Billion market and $2.5 trillion GDP.
Going forward, MAN is joining Government and other private sector groups to critically analyze the continental market and strategically capacitate our domestic economic actors to benefit maximally from the AfCFTA.” Ajayi-Kadir said.