Nigerian Government looks to boost Intra-Africa Trade and foster Regional Intergration

While nations and governments are looking to sign bilateral agreements with other useful nations, to boost trade between their economies, the Nigerian Government having achieved some with developed and emerging economies around the world, is looking within the continent to boost trade within African countries to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers. The Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Samuel Ortom representing his boss, Olusegun Aganga, at this year’s Africa Industrialization Day, yesterday, said that, “Africa is, indeed, endowed with a wealth of natural and mineral resources, which if properly harnessed, will serve as an engine of economic growth and prosperity on the continent. It is, however, unfortunate that Africa has been very successful in integrating itself with the rest of the world, but has not been successful in integrating countries in the continent. The fragmentation of Africa in terms of trade is thus dramatic and resulting in the loss of billions of dollars of Gross Domestic Products and millions of jobs that ought to have been created.” He continued, “Effective regional integration in Africa will not only enhance trade within Africa, but will also attract investment into the manufacturing sector. Nigeria aims at expanding intra-African trade by breaking down tariff and non-tariff barriers and enhancing mutually advantageous commercial relations through trade liberalisation schemes. Regional integration helps in developing larger markets, fostering greater competition and improving policy stance in many areas of the development agenda. In addition, pooling economies and markets together through regional integration provides a sufficiently wide economised market space to make economies of scale possible.”

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This article was first published on 21st November 2012

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