President Muhammadu Buhari Monday lauded Africa’s collaborative journey towards collective economic prosperity through the African Continental Free Trade Area, adding that “Africa must be a marketplace where no country is left behind.”
In his address Monday at the opening ceremony of the Intra-African Trade Fair 2021 at Durban, South Africa, President Buhari said “under the African Continental Free Trade Area, we can double our intra-Africa trade by 2030, reduce our reliance on imports and therefore create more jobs within the continent.”
He said he Iooked forward to seeing more African products manufactured in Africa using African resources, noting that AFCFTA is for “made-in-Africa” products and services.
The President said most of Africa’s existing challenges, whether security, economy or corruption, confronting Africa can be traced to the continent’s inability over the years to domesticate the production of its most basic requirements and provide jobs to its teeming and dynamic youth population.
He however warned that this goal cannot be achieved by talking alone.
“The implementation will be a difficult journey. But all challenges are surmountable if both the public and private sectors collaborate,” he said.
Speaking further, he said, “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 said business people must 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.
Noting that Free Trade must also be fair, Buhari said fairness can only be achieved when there is full compliance with regulations especially those relating to rules of origin.
“The Intra-Africa Trade Fair is uniquely positioned to help in these areas,” he added.
Commenting on the benefits of the Trade Fair, Buhari said, “Through these gatherings, we will be laying a solid foundation for future business-to-business, business and government, and government to government co-operation.”
Assuring participants that Nigeria came to Durban in full force to actively participate in the trade fair and take full advantage of all the opportunities it provides.
The President, while assuring participants that Nigeria is open for business, said: “We have streamlined the country’s participation under one-roof to enable you access all the information you need.
“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.
“We also introduced reforms in key institutions as well as policies to fight corruption and ease the way of doing business in Nigeria.”
He congratulated the African Union Commission, the AFCFTA Secretariat and the Africa Export Import Bank for their dedication and relentless effort in seeing this very worthy initiative become a reality.
He also commended the people of Durban for hosting this year’s intra-African trade fair and expressed hope that it will witness milestone agreements among African businesses at this gathering.
