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By Merit Ibe
The Federal Government and the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE) have emphasised the need to create a friendly business environment that will make the country more competitive among other trade partners.
Minister for Industry Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, who made the remark at a workshop organised by CPPE, themed: “Cross Border Trade in the West African Sub Region: Prospects, Challenges and the Way forward,” enumerated some of the challenges experienced in the trade to include lack of infrastructure, absence of a common currency, high cost of doing business, corruption, instability, insecurity, non adherence to ECOWAS protocols and lack of inter-intra sectoral linkages among others.
Proffering the way forward, he noted that provision of trade related infrastructure, capacity building programme, targeted and demand driven, improving cross border agencies cooperation among others should be in place.
Adebayo noted that for Nigeria to effectively participate and benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the issues of international trade in areas of clearance of imports and exports in international trade needed to be improved upon.
He disclosed that quite a number of challenges presently experienced have been addressed by the National Quality Policy (NQP), which was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in January.
In his remarks, Chief Executive Officer CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, noted that the regional economic blocs are the building blocks for the economic integration of the African continent, adding that for the AfCFTA to be a success, various regional economic communities must be robust and active.
Yusuf said the theme of the workshop was apt, having regard to the progressive traction that the AfCFTA is gaining on the continent. He asserted that Public Private Partnership was critical to the realisation of our continental integration dream.
“For too long, many private sector organisations and institutions on our continent have confined themselves to the comfort of their individual countries, while our counterparts in other parts of the world are advancing the frontiers of their economies and markets through integration.”
Yusuf noted that regions should begin to develop not only regional, but also continental and global outlook for our businesses and economies. Noting that progress of trade has been rather slow, the CPPE boss added that it is a paradox that ECOWAS, which is one of the oldest regional economic community in Africa, has not achieved much in the area of economic integration.
For his part, Executive Dirctor/CEO Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Dr. Ezra Yakusak, said it was imperative to have formal cross border trade activities especially as they relate to exports.
He said Capturing of evidence based statistics on informal cross border trade (ICBT) within the mandate of NEPC is a daunting challenge that the Council was currently addressing.
“It is a continuous exercise, systematic and capital intensive but the Council will not be deterred by the challenges therein.
