By Aaron Ukodie
The implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area known as AfCFTA will lead to about 60 per cent boost in intra-Africa trade by 2022, up from 16 per cent recorded in 2014, creating the world’s largest free trade area, according to the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Professor Umar Danbatta.
The EVC spoke at a two-day sensitization workshop on the implications of the African Continental Free Trade Area ( AfCTA) held in Lagos last week.
AfCFTA is an initiative of the Africa Union with the main objective of creating a single continental market for goods and services, in addition to facilitating free movement of investment and people across the entire African continent.
Nigeria joined the list of African countries to sign the trade pact when President Muhammadu Buhari on July 7th, 2019, endorsed the AfCFTA Agreement at the AU Summit in Niamey, Niger.
Danbatta said with the AfCFTA Agreement, the hitherto business algorithm in Africa is going to change, as it will become difficult for any country to be regarded as the largest market in Africa, since the African continent is now going to be seen as one single international trade bloc.
He said the Federal Government’s aspirations to advance Nigeria’s economic development through continuous encouragement of pro-trade, pro-business, pro-investment and pro-export measures are in sync with the mandate of the NCC to stimulate investment and economic activity by protecting the interest of the Government, investors and consumers within the Nigerian Communications ecosystem.
The NCC, Danbatta said, is fully committed in ensuring synergy through strategic collaboration with relevant stakeholders such as NOTN in sensitizing industry stakeholders on the implications of the AfCFTA Agreement.
He said within the context of the thematic focus of this workshop, the Commission hopes to examine how it could improve the competitiveness of the over $70 billion Nigerian Communications sector market for the Continental Free Trade Area and leverage on the advantage of the Nigeria’s Communication industry, which is the sector expected to facilitate and drive the digital economic revolution in the country
According to him the NCC organized the sensitization workshop, in collaboration with NOTN, is convening this workshop to:
- draw attention of industry stakeholders to the need to fully appreciate the business implications of the AfCFTA;
- promote a deep understanding of the AfCFTA Initiative by industry stakeholders, in addition to the institutions that will come into existence following the activation of the Free Trade Area;
- initiate and lead discussions on areas of comparative advantage for the Nigerian telecoms stakeholders, in addition to developing implementable strategies for market entry and market exploitation for the Nigeria-based Communications businesses and investors;
- encourage industry stakeholders on the need to seek and exploit opportunities that will emerge in the operational phase of the AfCFTA and finally
- Use the workshops as an avenue for generating feedback, identifying possible areas of interest for industry stakeholders and evolving a Roadmap for the future trajectory of the industry in the context of the Continental Free Trade Area.
