AfCFTA To Grow African Trade By $35bn

(AfCFTA), if successfully implemented, would increase intra-African trade by as much as $35 billion or 52 per cent yearly above the baseline by 2022, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) said at the weekend.

The Council’s Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, Hassan Bello, stated this at the maritime stakeholders’ summit organised by Journalngonline.com at the weekend.

The theme of the conference was “Maximising benefits of intra-African trade under AfCFTA regime”.

Bello was represented at the event by James Chabulatuda, Operations Officers, Consumer Affairs, of the Council.

Bello added that the Agreement would have the consequence of imports from outside the continent decrease by $10 billion yearly, whereas agricultural and industrial exports would increase by $4 billion and $21 billion above the baseline.

He added that the AfCFTA would boost small and medium scale enterprises by 80 percent in Africa’s growth by using regional markets as stepping stones for expanding into overseas markets outside Africa.

The Council boss stated that Nigeria with population of 200 million, seventh largest in the world, third largest youth population in the World, 20th world largest economy and strong services, will create job opportunities for the people as well as opportunities for investment.

He noted the main objectives of the Agreement to include expansion of intra-African trade through better harmonisation and coordination of trade within continent; enhancement of competitiveness at the enterprise level to support economic transformation, exploitation of economic of scale to take advantage of continental market access.

Others are adding value to Africa’s natural resource; developing regional value chains and attracting investments into Africa.