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The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has said Nigeria must leverage the opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to boost its economy.
Abbas, who stated this at a Legislative Business Meeting held as part of the 2026 National Assembly Open Week, promised that the parliament would repeal obsolete laws hindering businesses as part of a broad legislative agenda to improve Nigeria’s competitiveness, attract investment and accelerate economic transformation.
The Speaker implored the organised private sector to move beyond dialogue by engaging more actively with lawmakers through participation in public hearings.
“We also see the opportunities that lie just beyond our present difficulties. The African Continental Free Trade Area has opened a single market of more than a billion people, and Nigeria, as the largest economy on the continent, must be equipped to sell into it and not merely to buy from it.
“Our young people are building a digital and creative economy that already earns this nation global respect, our farmland can feed the region if we add value at home, and our abundant gas can power a fresh wave of industry. The Nigerian Economic Summit Group speaks of a trillion-dollar economy within our reach, and this House intends to legislate deliberately for that ambition.”
Abbas, who reiterated the House’s determination to ensure that the Nigerian economy becomes more competitive, made five commitments to the business community.
“First, on regulatory clarity and legislative predictability, we commit that laws affecting business will be stable, transparent, and made with your input, so that no investor is ever ambushed by a rule they could not foresee.
“Second, on the cost of doing business, we will build on the tax reforms to harmonise levies across all tiers of government, so that one enterprise is not taxed to exhaustion by federal, state and local authorities at the same time.
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“Third, on access to finance, we will strengthen, through law and through oversight, the institutions that lend to the real economy, and press for financing that actually reaches the small and medium enterprises that employ most of our people.
“Fourth, on competitiveness, we will repeal the obsolete laws that frustrate enterprise, and legislate to support local manufacturing, agriculture, and our readiness for the continental market.
“And fifth, on delivery, we will use our oversight not to harass the private sector, but to hold public agencies to account for implementing these reforms faithfully and courteously,” he stated.
The Speaker, who stressed the need for constant engagement between the parliament and the business community, proposed the establishment of a standing National Assembly and Business Executive Roundtable (NABER) to meet twice every year.
He said: “Let us establish a standing National Assembly and Business Executive Roundtable (NABER), convened twice every year, that brings the leadership of both chambers and our economic committees together with the organised private sector, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, organised labour and our development partners.
“Its mission would be simple and serious, to keep the conversation between Parliament and the productive economy continuous, structured and grounded in evidence, rather than occasional and reactive.
“Its purpose would be fourfold: to review, each half-year, the true state of our business environment; to track the implementation of our reforms and the fate of the commitments we make to one another; to shape a shared, pro-growth legislative calendar for the year ahead; and to surface the obstacles to investment early enough for us to remove them by law.”
