Presidential C’ttee on CFTA Asks Buhari for Two-week Extension …Meets NLC, MAN, governors' forum

The presidential committee to widen consultation on the framework establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) on Thursday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to extend its mandate by two weeks.

The request, it was gathered exclusively last night, is to allow it firm up consultations with major stakeholders and determine how Nigeria will benefit sector by sector from the CFTA.

The committee’s deadline to submit it report to the president expired yesterday.

It was established on March 27 to review the framework of agreement on CFTA, after Nigeria backed out from the extraordinary meeting of African Union Heads of State and Government just when they were set to sign the CFTA agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 21.

The request for extension is to pave way for Nigeria’s ratification of the pact ahead of the next AU summit in July.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, presided over yesterday’s committee meeting.

The parley also had in attendance the Ministers of Science and Technology, Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar.

Other top government officers at the meeting held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs included the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Adeyemi Dipeolu; Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, (NIPC), Yewande Sadiku; Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) Mr. Babatunde Fowler; Executive Secretary, Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Segun Awolowo; DG of the Nigeria Office for Trade Negotiations, Chiedu Osakwe; the Senior Special Assistant, Public Sector, Francis Anatogu; a representative of Customs Comptroller General, A.S Aliyu, and the General Manager Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), Edward Kabir.

The agreement to establish a free trade bloc within 18 months was signed by 44 other African countries without Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.

The African CFTA that will liberalise services and remove tariffs on 90 percent of goods is expected to create a trade bloc of 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of more than $2 trillion.

President Buhari opted out of the single continental market for goods and services with free movement of business persons and investments because his government claimed the agreement had not been considered.

Also, both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) were opposed to the agreement.

The NLC grounds for objection was that the trade liberation would lead to job losses, while MAN said it would not support unless the issues of market access and enforcement of rules of origin, among other concerns, were addressed.

While shedding light on the progress by the committee, Osakwe, who is also Nigeria’s chief negotiator, said the committee last Tuesday met with the NLC leadership while it had another meeting yesterday with the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN).

He said the committee had also requested for inputs from other key stakeholders, including MAN, FIRS, NPA Customs and Immigrations, adding that the committee will look at Executive Order 5 when working out the details of the trade.