Nigeria’s rejection of deal supported

Lagos. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has supported the country’s refusal to sign the African Continental Free Trade Area. Some 44 countries signed the agreement in Kigali, Rwanda on Wednesday, creating the world’s largest free market.

However, 3,000 Nigeria manufactures praised their country for backing out, saying the deal would lead to gross unemployment at home as most local companies would die.

MAN president Frank Jacobs said on Thursday the association would not support the Federal Government’s adoption and ratification of the agreement until issues of market access and enforcement of rules of origin were addressed.

According to MAN, the agitation from the private sector was a result of lack of inclusion of inputs of key stakeholders in the build-up to Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) negotiation by Nigeria.

AfCTA is expected to create a trading bloc of 1.2 billion people with a combined gross domestic product of more than $2 trillion.

The agreement commits countries to removing tariffs on 90 per cent of goods and to liberalise services.

Dr Jacobs said the market access that allows only 10 per cent of products to be protected as well as government’s enforcement of rules of origin needed to be clearly defined before local producers could support it. The AfCFTA agreement was signed at the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the Assembly of the African Union, but Nigeria was absent.

President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled his trip to Kigali, claiming that the trade agreement had a number of ambiguities.

As the signing was going on in Kigali, Africa’s leading industrialist Aliko Dangote and Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates were meeting President Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria. (Agencies)