The Executive Secretary of the National Action Committee on African Continental Free Trade Area (NAC-AfCFTA),, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, confirmed yesterday the Nigeria’s readiness to embrace the AfCFTA digital trade protocol in order to tap into the lucrative $16 trillion market potential of this sector.
Awolowo also clarified that, contrary to rumors, actual trading activities have not yet commenced under the groundbreaking agreement that aims to enhance intra-African trade, among other
Awolowo gave a speech at the start of the Abuja stakeholders’ workshop about the AfCFTA digital trade protocol. The workshop had the theme, “Getting Ready for AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol.” He also mentioned that the Guided Trade Initiative (GTI), a project recently introduced by the AfCFTA secretariat to encourage countries to trade beyond their regional groups even before the AfCFTA is in place, will kick off in April.
The project with Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, and Rwanda will set the stage for the AfCFTA launch and give us a chance to see how things work. Awolowo mentioned that the digital trade rules are crucial for AfCFTA, considering they represent a whopping $16 trillion economy all on their own.
He said, “Being a developing country, like most of the countries in Africa, Nigeria has to take immediate advantage of this due to our youthful population, and this is the way to go.
“I think it is one of the most important protocols; we’ve done the protocol on goods and services, but digital trade is going to be the future, and Nigeria has the biggest advantage in Africa to trade under this protocol because of our start-ups – we have the start-up bill that is now in operation and the various fintech industries are for Nigeria to grab and lead the way.
“So, that’s why we are very excited and, in fact, Nigeria is the first country holding a workshop on this protocol. This industry is big and the country has a chance to be the leader.”
Awolowo added, “The future of our economy is really in trade. I keep saying that we must trade our way out of poverty, and unemployment and trade our way into prosperity. And that is what we think AfCFTA is bringing to the table for us to capture Africa.“We’ve neglected it for so long – we export to other countries in the world but we neglect Africa and that’s just next door. So, let’s take advantage of the regional blocs – ECOWAS – so we can export more into Africa.
“We will continue to build infrastructure as we go along. Trade in services doesn’t need a bridge; it doesn’t need an express road – it’s digital – so we go along with that. We know there’s an infrastructure deficit, of course, in all of Africa in terms of road, shipping.”
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