Nneka Emeghara
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, has called on African countries to implement strategies that would promote industrialisation and diversification of their economies in order to optimise the opportunities offered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement to African economy.
Adebayo said: “The road ahead to realising these opportunities are tough and challenging but we have no choice but to tackle them head on.”
He made the call yesterday at the 2019 edition of the Africa Industrialisation Day (AID), which took place in Calabar, Cross River State.
He also called for increased intra-African trade to lessen the continent’s exposure to external macroeconomic shocks and protectionist trade policies.
“On our part, the Nigerian government is committed to resolving the constraints, which remain in our business environment. Relevant teams across the government are implementing various initiatives that address key areas of concern such as the need for modern infrastructure, power supply and good road networks; improving the patronage of locally made goods; bridging the gap in skills and innovation, improving the ease of doing business, improving cost and access to finance for SMEs, resolving multiple taxation, amongst others,” he said.
