Free Trade Area: Nigeria signs the Agreement

African Economic giant has signed the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.

Nigeria officially became a party to the Free Trade Area Agreement this Sunday 7 July 2019, poor to the African Union Summit holding in Niamey, Niger this Monday, 8 June 2019.

Nigeria President, Mohammadu Buhari received applause of appreciation from his peers at the start of the 12th extraordinary Summit of the African Union (AU).

So far, 53 of Africa’s 54 countries have signed the agreement except Eritrea.
Benin, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria are among the last to adhere to the free trade area agreement.
As at now, 27 countries have ratified the agreement and Ghana has been shortlisted to host the Permanent Secretariat.

The Free Trade Area Agreement is expected to bring as bright perspectives to intra African Trade and favour investments.

The agreement that is expected to go into force in 2020 is projected to boost trade within the continent by 60% in two years.

The head of the Nigerian delegation that negotiated the agreement, Chiedu Osakwe said that the liberalisation of trade has to be aligned with internal structural reforms.

Cameroon was amongst the first countries that signed that agreement during the extraordinary Summit in Kigali in 2018.

Cameroon’s parliament voted the bill to authorize the President of the Republic to ratify the agreement during the current June session that ends, this Tuesday, 9th July 2019.

Prime Minister – Head of Government, Joseph Dion Ngute had announced Cameroon’s plans to ratify the agreement during the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Once it goes operational, the some 1.2 billion inhabitants will trade in the common market with a cumulative Gross Domestic Product of 2500 billion dollars.

Advantages of ACFTA

– Elimination of 90% of custom tariffs
– Simplifying of administrative procedure
– free circulation of goods and services
– Opening of airspace amongst others.

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is the main issue under discussions at the extraordinary Summit of the African Union holding in Niamey.
Some 32 African leaders, 100 ministers and 4500 delegates are taking part in the summit.

Elvis Teke

Elvis Teke

Journalist, Online Reporter, News Presenter, Programme Anchor, Peace Advocate, Geo-strategist,

Laisser un commentaire

Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *

Ce site utilise Akismet pour réduire les indésirables. En savoir plus sur comment les données de vos commentaires sont utilisées.