AU, AfDB sign $4.8m grant for continental free trade secretariat
…woo Chinese investors in Nigeria’s agric sector
The African Development Bank Group on Monday signed a $4.8 million institutional support grant to the African Union (AU) for implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The bank said in a statement that the grant, approved by the group’s board of directors on April 1, 2019, formed part of a series of interventions by the bank in its lead role to accelerate implementation of the free trade agreement, seen as a major force for integrating the 55-nation continent and transforming its economy.
Albert Muchanga, AU’s Commissioner for Trade and Industry, initialed for the continental body, and Obed Andoh Mensah, representing
the bank’s Director of Industrial and Trade Development Department (PITD), signed on behalf of the bank, signaling the startup of implementation, the statement said.
“The AfCFTA is going to work and we are confident that by the 1st of July next year, all the 55 countries would have been state parties - meaning, they would have signed and ratified the agreement and intra-African trade will start,” Muchanga said and urged countries to use this period to complete the parliamentary processes.
Muchanga commended the bank’s strong and consistent support to ensure smooth implementation of the agreement, saying the grant would be used judiciously for the rollout of various protocols relating to the structure and mandate of the AfCFTA secretariat.
The trade agreement is expected to expand intraAfrican trade by up to $35 billion per year, ease movement of goods, services and people across the continent’s borders and cut imports by $10 billion, while boosting agriculture and industrial exports by 7% and 5% respectively.
Meanwhile, the AfDB is hosting a group of Chinese investors in Nigeria with the possibility of wooing them to invest in Nigeria and other African countries’ agricultural space.
The AfDB has arranged for the Chinese investors to also meet some Nigerian local investors, and top government officials like the Vice President and the Chief of Staff to the President, some state governors and relevant government agencies.
The Senior Director Nigeria Country Department of the African Development Bank, Ebrima Faal, in his remarks at the meeting at the AfDB office in Abuja, said the focus areas are agricultural production technologies, joint venture agro-industrial parks with state governments, joint venture agro-industrial parks with local agribusinesses and sole development of agroindustrial parks.
He said the bank has a pipeline of $16bn projects over 2019-2023 and will leverage significant cofinancing (bank $6.3 billion and co-financing US$9.2 billion). Out of these funds, he said, 26 percent is set for agriculture financing.