Henry Uche
As Nigeria, among other African countries, warm up to explore the opportunities embedded in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) , the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has expressed concern over Nigeria preparedness.
Speaking at the 2nd business network breakfast series recently in Lagos by Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN), the Director General, of MAN, Segun Ajayi-kadiri, represented by Director, Economics and statistics, Olusegun Osidipe, said clearly that AFCFTA is not bad in its entirety, but so many questions and salient issues were not resolved before Nigeria signed the agreement.
According to him, Nigeria is lagging behind in terms of trade facilitations, access to finance, technology, trade information hub, production capacity among other factors, which would place Nigeria at disadvantage hence no country would have an edge over another without a robust manufacturing sector.
He said if Nigeria has no well equipped research and information hub to guide investors, promoters, analysts, business men and women to make business decisions and proper planning as well as the required strategies to get results, one wonders how Nigeria would make any headway at AFCFTA.
“MAN has not been against Nigeria signing AFCFTA, because it is not a bad idea, in fact it is a game changer, what we were saying is that we should not sign in a haste. Now if we are ready, why closing the borders? Closing boarders is against the ethics of international trade, as we all know, deliberations and discussions before and after signing AFCFTA has justified MAN’s position.
He added that though the Federal Government is doing its best to boost ease of doing business, however, most of the business policies of this administration are strangulating the Organized Private Sector (OPS) because the whole policies do not achieve any significant reduction in the cost of doing business; which is what every business person expects from the government.