By Merit Ibe
Secretary–General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, Wamkele Mene, has inability of most African countries to enforce customs agreements could be a major setback to the implementation of the agreement.
Mene, who made the assertion in a webinar, said some countries have the political will and the legal commitment, but need to improve on their capacity .
“This is not true for all the countries. Some countries and regions have very strong customs procedures.
“Generally, the capacity of customs authorities is very low,” citing his experience when he crossed Nigeria’s border with Niger.
He said “It is very clear to me that there are countries on the continent who simply cannot implement this agreement, and that is going to be a hindrance, and a big challenge.
“They have the political will, the legal commitment is there, but the capacity is what we have to improve on.
“They can enforce the customs rules that we have agreed to.” This was as the Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, posited that many small businesses depend on cross border trade to survive while manufacturers also leverage the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) to boost their businesses and source their raw materials from countries in the sub-region.
“The biggest challenge with border management is an institutional issue. We need to demand accountability from the institutions that have the responsibility for border policing and management,” he added.
Mene said the lockdown associated with the COVID-19 pandemic had delayed the implementation of the AfCFTA from last year until the start of this year, but it came with many lessons.
“We learned that, because of this disruption in global supply chains, Africa must accelerate industrial development so that we rely less on global supply chains and rely more on regional supply chains,” he said.
“COVID-19 was a hindrance but it also helped focus our minds on what we need to do to accelerate our industrial development as a continent.”
He said the distribution of vaccines around the world also shows that Africa had to develop its generic drug industry “so that the generic drug industry is at the service of Africa’s public health imperatives as well as at the service of Africa’s industrialisation.”