Buhari: Why Nigeria opted out of deal
The signing ceremony took place yesterday during the 10th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union on the AfCFTA held in Kigali without Nigeria and South Africa, the two biggest economies on the continent.
With the signing the deal, the participating countries will remove tariffs on 90 per cent of goods while the excluded 10 per cent of sensitive goods will be included in future.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, received the legal instruments signed by 44 African countries.
It was not immediately clear why South Africa and Nigeria stayed on the sidelines. Others staying out of the bloc were Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, Burundi, Eritrea, Benin, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau, Reuters news agency said.
The signing of the deal by 44 countries means individual President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday told the Federal Executive Council why he cancelled his trip to Kigali, Rwanda, for the signing of the agreement framework for the African Union Continental Free Trade Area.
Buhari said the AfCTA agreement has the capacity to hinder local entrepreneurship countries would now ratify the agreement in line with their sovereign laws, which will come into force if 15 to 25 countries out of the 55 AU member countries approve it.
The deal envisages that the free trade zone to be created by participating countries will boost inter-African trade estimated at 10 per cent at the moment.
The AU hopes that the deal will also speed up the process and encourage the dumping of finished goods in Nigeria.
The president also stated that Nigeria was yet to fully understand the economic and security implications of the agreement.
He, therefore, constituted a committee comprising the Ministers of Finance, Budget, Labour, Foreign Affairs, Science and Technology as well as the Central Bank of of a single currency for the intra-continental trade and free movement of Africans on the continent.
The withdrawal of Nigeria, with a population of about 196 million people as at 2018, may rattle the African Union, considering that the free trade area targets Africa’s 1.3 billion people.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has called on the federal Nigeria, the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian Immigration Service to review the content of the AfCFTA proposals and look at its security implications.
Addressing State House reporters after the council meeting, presidential spokesman Mr Femi Adesina said: “The committee which has two weeks to submit its report will be expected to look at the security implications of the agreement.”
Last week, the FEC had last at a meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had resolved that Buhari should sign the AfCFTA agreement framework.
The president, however, cancelled his scheduled trip on Sunday after some of his advance team members had arrived Kigali.