Nigeria Set To Kickstart Official Export To South Africa And Beyond

Eko hot blog reports that In a groundbreaking move, Nigeria is gearing up to kickstart the official export of locally produced goods to South Africa, Rwanda, Cameroon, and Kenya starting next month. This initiative falls under the Guided Trade Initiative of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), marking a significant step towards boosting intra-African trade.

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While some Nigerian businesses currently export products to these nations informally, the commencement of April will witness Nigerian companies embarking on the formal export of commodities to fellow African nations under the AfCFTA treaty. This initiative aims to leverage the vast potential of the AfCFTA, which stands as the largest free trade area globally by the number of participating countries.

Speaking at the Abuja Stakeholders Workshop on the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol, Executive Secretary of the National Action Committee on AfCFTA, Olusegun Awolowo, shed light on the significance of this move. He emphasized the ongoing process of diligently navigating through protocols before actual trading commences under AfCFTA, highlighting the introduction of the Guided Trade Initiative by the AfCFTA secretariat Nigeria.

Awolowo explained, “We haven’t started trading in AfCFTA; we are duly going through the protocols. But recently, the AfCFTA secretariat itself launched what they call the Guided Trade Initiative to get some countries to start trading outside their regional blocks.

We’ve signed onto it, and I think that by the end of April, we are taking a few companies, big, medium, and small enterprises, to actually launch trading in Africa. All we are doing now is that we are going through and signing all the protocols, as well as finding a way on how to implement them. So we are now at the stage of implementation. Therefore, trading hasn’t really commenced under AfCFTA. It is not an overnight thing; you have to go through all the protocols, sign them, and agree.”

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This move signifies Nigeria’s commitment to harnessing the potential of AfCFTA and fostering economic growth through increased intra-African trade, paving the way for enhanced regional integration and prosperity.

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