Currently on a four-day official visit to Arusha, Tanzania, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo of Nigeria has reported that African cross-border informal trade is worth $93 billion.
Osinbajo, said in a message sent to a roundtable on industrialisation in Africa with the theme: “Positioning African Industries for Economic Transformation and Continental Free Trade”.
The roundtable was organised by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to celebrate its Golden Jubilee.
He stressed the need to rapidly operationalise effort by Afreximbank to establish a Pan-African Payments and Settlement Platform.
This, according to him, “will go a long way in creating the desired continental payments system and also in facilitating cross-border informal trade which is estimated to be about $93 billion per annum.”
The Vice President also declared that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers limitless opportunities for the industrialisation of Africa, urging authorities to take the right actions to actualise them.