…Says Nigerian economy witnessed re-engineering
President Muhammadu Buhari said Monday that African countries have the capacity to redouble their internal trade by 2030 and reduce their reliance on imports.
The President said this at the 2nd Intra-African Trade Fair 2021 in Durban, South Africa.
He said most of Africa’s existing challenges, whether security, economy, or corruption, can be traced to the inability to domesticate the production of most basic requirements and provide jobs to the teeming and dynamic youth population.
‘‘Under the African Continental Free Trade Area, we can double our intra-African trade by 2030, reduce our reliance on imports and therefore create more jobs within the continent.
‘‘We cannot achieve this goal by talking alone. The implementation will be a difficult journey. But all challenges are surmountable if both the public and private sectors collaborate.
‘‘On the public sector side, Governments must support local entrepreneurs to build scale and therefore improve productivity.
‘‘This means providing incentives to encourage our businesses to formalise and comply with laid down regulations,’’ he said.
On the rules of engagement for the free trade initiative, the President Buhari reminded Heads of State and participants at the trade fair that: ‘‘Free trade must also be fair and fairness can only be achieved when there is full compliance with regulations, especially those relating to rules of origin.
‘‘The AfCFTA is for “made-in-Africa” products and services. Africa must be a marketplace where no country is left behind.
“As we implement, we must ensure that we create jobs and enhance revenues for all parties. We must leverage on one another’s strengths to succeed.”
The President also called on businesses in Africa to key into existing regional value chains or build new ones, either to extend operations into the higher value segments of their industries or to satisfy the Area’s rules of origin requirements.
He expressed delight that the Intra-African Trade Fair was uniquely positioned to help in these areas, stressing that the Nigerian economy under his administration had witnessed a re-engineering.
‘‘As many of you are aware, in the past five years, Nigeria has made significant strides towards the diversification of her economy from an oil revenue-dependent country to a nation with diverse revenue sources.
‘‘We were able to achieve this by putting in place fiscal, monetary and trade policies that support investments and investors in key sectors such as Agriculture, Mining, Telecommunications and Digital Economy, Banking and Financial services, tourism, and manufacturing,’’ he said.
Declaring that Nigeria is open for business, the President highlighted that progress was being made in the reforms of key institutions, the fight against corruption as well as the ease of doing business in the country.
He congratulated the African Union Commission, the AfCFTA Secretariat and the Africa Export-Import Bank for their dedication and relentless effort in seeing the Trade Area become a reality.
‘‘Today is a great day for Africa as we start our collaborative journey towards collective economic prosperity through the African Continental Free Trade Area. I very much look forward to seeing more African products manufactured in Africa using African resources.
‘‘I also commend the people of Durban for hosting this year’s Intra-African Trade Fair. I sincerely hope that we will witness milestone agreements among African businesses at this gathering.
‘‘Through these gatherings, we will be laying a solid foundation for future business-to-business, business and government, and government-to-government co-operation,’’ he said.
