The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has urged the federal government to strategically position the economy to exploit the opportunities of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
Mr Olusegun Osidipe, Director, Economics and Statistics Department, MAN, made the appeal at the MAN Zonal AfCFTA sensitisation workshop in Lagos.
Osidipe said that the nation would excel in the AfCFTA by leveraging on free market access to increase the country’s non-oil export trade volume.
He said that the country had comparative advantage in export of mineral resources, lubricants, agricultural products, beverages and tobacco, crude materials and services.
The director, however, noted that the nation was currently not in a position of readiness to benefit from the opportunities of the AfCFTA.
“If African countries can trade more with each other, the gains from such exchange would form part of resources needed for solving the numerous challenges of the continent, especially unemployment and poverty.
“But, going by the uncompetitive nature of the Nigerian production environment in recent times, one safely concludes that the private sector is not ready for implementation of the AfCFTA,” he said.
To maximally exploit the benefits, the statistician called for the provision of comprehensive and integrated support systems for SMIs to insulate the domestic economy from the backlash of the AfCFTA.
He said that the private sector must be united and strategically positioned to ensure that other laws that would enhance gainful participation are enacted.
The MAN director encouraged member-companies to fully deploy the tenets of competitive advantage strategy to upscale, own their value chain, improve capabilities and reduce production cost, to accelerate export diversification
He advocated capacity building in the understanding of the Rules of Origin and the Trade Remedy Mechanisms.
Osidipe said that the government should also consistently see to the improvement of critical infrastructure to ensure global competitiveness.
“The association and manufacturers must radically adopt technology and innovate to improve products, marketing strategies and business model, to meet the dynamic speed of market transformation.
“We must also avoid building business sustainability around government incentives and setting business goals, growth targets and profitability around government support,” he said.
Mr Adeyemi Folorunsho, Assistant Director, Sectoral Department, MAN recommended that the ECOWAS Commission should ensure that tariff lines strategic to Nigeria which were lumped in the liberalized list be moved to the exclusion and sensitive baskets respectively.
Folorunsho explained that if not done, the gains the country had recorded in its economic diversification and industrialization drive would be reversed.
“Items with zero trade value in ECOWAS list should be removed from the exclusion list to accommodate tariff lines that are of priority to Nigeria,” he said.
Folorunsho , however, enjoined members to understand the process as not all the items submitted for exclusion may make the final list.
Mr Mansur Ahmed, MAN President, said the AfCFTA was a noble idea expected to increase the volume of trade among African countries and help address the challenges of unemployment and poverty in the continent.
Ahmed was represented by Honorary National Treasurer of MAN, Rev Isaac Agoye.
He said the association, in recognizing the importance of creating a beneficial free trade area for export of members products, was working to promote the articulation of evidence-based positions on AfCFTA.
“Nigeria has signed the AfCFTA Agreement with great expectation that the country would gain from the Free Trade Arrangement and not suffer too much losses.
“Trade experts worldwide generally agree that every trade agreement comes with economic gains and pains.
“For instance, the report of the study commissioned by MAN revealed compelling low points, as import will surge in all the manufacturing sectoral groups as tariff cuts would trigger increases in import
