The Group Chief Commercial Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Mr Rabiu Umar, has urged African leaders to dismantle trade barriers stifling smooth flow of goods and services for the continent’s economic growth.
Umar made the call on the sidelines of the on-going Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) holding in Durban, South Africa, from Nov. 15 to 21, a statement by Dangote Industries has said.
Umar represented the Dangote Group, Which was a platinum sponsor of the trade fair.
He called for reforms at the various ports across Africa, stating: “Bringing down these barriers will mean that goods and services can move much more freely on the continent from one country to another.
He advocated improved infrastructure across Africa to promote regional integration, as well as the ease of regulations and bureaucracy that prevented free flow of trade across the continent in order to realise the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
Calling for an enforcement of the Rules of Origin enshrined in the agreement, Umar also canvassed for 80 per cent of components of manufactured products to be sourced from Africa to avoid dumping of goods from foreign countries.
He noted that there was a renewed interest in the Dangote group and Nigeria from other African countries at the fair.
Highlighting benefits of the AfCFTA and its impact on manufacturers like the Dangote Group, Umar said: “The trade barriers highlight a lot of issues around infrastructure, around diplomacy, around ports. For example, if you take the port situation, you may get your goods to the port and it takes such a long time. I give the example of Nigeria to get them out of the country or into the country.
“I was on a panel here and someone from South Africa said it’s cheaper to move goods from Durban to China than from Durban to Cape Town. So, the challenges are not just related to a particular region, they’re all across Africa,” he added.
Speaking about the scope of operations of the Dangote Group, he stated that, “We have presence in 10 countries, like I said, including South Africa. So, we had people come in, who are in South Africa to ask to do business with us.
“We have had people who want to know about our fertiliser business, for example and of course, the famous refinery, people are interested in finding out more and how they can collaborate and do business with us. So, it’s been a worthwhile trip so far,” he said.
Speaking on how to boost Intra-African trade, Umar suggested fixing infrastructure, tariff reduction, ease of payments and settlements as top priorities.
According to him it’s a very difficult process. It is not just about the road transport or the quality of the roads you have. We don’t have a rail system and of course, you know, road transportation is very expensive.
”The second part is the tariffs, the systems and the process, the bureaucracy. So for us to get to where we need to get to, I think the key condition is to remove these barriers to trade, the biggest one being infrastructure, you need the infrastructure to move goods across the second part of it.
“You need to cut out the red tape, from a diplomatic perspective, from a customs perspective, or from even a payment settlement perspective.
“This is one of the things the Afreximbank has done with the settlement system among the African countries meaning that you are kind of dollarising the economies of these countries,” he said.
