‘AfCFTA may make or mar African economies’
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) pact, which implementation is expected to kick off soon, will make or mar individual African economies, an investment expert, Mrs. Olukemi Arodudu, has cautioned.
She said how African nations handled the implementation of the AfCFTA would determine the positive or negative impact on the individual and collective economies of the continent.
Arodudu, who heads the Investment Department of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and investment, told participants at a forum in Abuja that “for attracting investment for rural development in Nigeria” held in Abuja yesterday that Nigeria must be innovative to use the African market to the country’s advantage.
She said, “It is time for Nigeria to decide her own fate by determining her areas of comparative advantages, laying emphasis on them, and directing the incoming Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the good of our people.”
The expert said if Nigeria must reap maximum benefit from the AfCFTA pact, the country must tackle the myriad of challenges of poverty, food security, threats to security of lives and property, unemployment, infrastructural decay, among others.
The ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, advised that in these trying times, when Africa had decided to pull down some economic borders and become one large market, African nations needed to be more strategic and deliberate in their economic policies.
He said: “Our neighbours are attracting investors, with the promise that they can produce in their countries and sell to Nigeria, and they are offering diverse kinds of incentives to make that happen.
“To prevent Nigeria from becoming the dumping ground for goods and services produced in our sister African states, Nigeria has to be very deliberate and strategic henceforth in her investment promotion and facilitation, among others”, he added.
The permanent secretary further said it was expedient for each state in the nation to come up with investment promotion strategies that would attract investment, boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and help SMEs to be competitive.