AfCFT pact: Uncertainty over Nigeria’s withdrawal
The recent indication that Nigeria will not sign the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) pact today may have opened the window of uncertainty over the fate of the pact.
55 member states of the African Union (AU) are expected to sign the pact today in Kigali, Rwanda, but news filtered in on Sunday that Nigeria had momentarily decided to stay action on the pact pending “more domestic consultations.”
A source within the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment confided in Daily Trust that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting today may revisit Nigeria’s decision to back out of the pact pending more consultations.
On March 14, 2018, The FEC had approved the signing of the pact and Nigeria’s bid to host the secretariat of the AfCFTA, but a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday indicated that President Muhammadu Buhari had cancelled his attendance at the signing ceremony in Kigali and that Nigeria would consult with stakeholders before taking a final decision on the continental trade pact.
Daily Maverick of South Africa reported that Ghana and Nigeria’s initial bid to host the headquarters of the AfCFTA suffered a setback as it has been hosted at the AU’s headquarters at Addis Ababa.
Details are still sketchy if Nigeria’s assent decline will cause a slip back for the pact but it will come into force if 15 to 25 countries out of the total of 55 AU member countries ratify it.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) had separately advised the Federal Government not to sign the deal even as the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) backed it.
The objectives of the agreement includes to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments and expand intra African trade through better harmonisation and coordination of trade liberalization and facilitation regimes and instruments across Africa in general.
The agreement also aims to resolve the challenges of multiple and overlapping memberships and expedite the regional and continental integration processes and enhance competitiveness at the industry and enterprise level through exploiting opportunities for scale production, continental market access and better reallocation of resources.