AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA AGREEMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR NIGERIA’S TRADE POLICY
Audu, Sulaiman Muhammad , Prof. Abdullahi Yahya Adadu , Dr. David Sunday Jacho and Dr. Canice Erunke
Volume 8 Issue 1
Abstract
This study evaluates the introduction and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement and its implications on Nigeria Trade Policy, signed by 54 out of the 55 Member-States on the 21st March 2018, and came into effect on the 1st January, 2021.The pact as an Afrocentric vision designed to enable collective Africa to find home grown solution to its peculiar socio-economic challenges through trade, thereby, achieving the target of boosting intra-Africa trade (BIAT) and Agenda 2063. The AfCFTA, is also, an indicationofrenewedconsensusandcommitmentoftheContinent’sleadership to pursue the economic integration of the Continent for growth and developmentt through trade and, it represents a significant milestone in harnessing the Continent’s international trade and investment opportunities on their own terms. This integration processes explained in the theories of functionalism as it broadly explores the dynamic factors that contribute to the slow pace of the implementation of African integration plan. The research evaluates the AfCFTA and its implications on Nigeria’s Trade Policy, its trade indices both import and export prior to the introduction of the AfCFTA, whether or not the agreement will aid in the improvement of the Country’s economic fortunes through trade.Using interpretive-qualitative analysis of data drawn from both primary and secondary sources, records of interviews and field notes, the study reveals that mostly, non-complementarities of trade between the African States and the international market, the divergence of Member-States governments’ interests to surrender elements of their sovereignty, institutional dysfunction within Member-States institutions tasked with the coordination of the implementation of the agreement, the poor state or absence of basic infrastructure and the lack of popular participation by critical stakeholders seem likely to hamper the realisation of the goals. The study therefore, investigate Nigeria’s trade indices both import and export prior to the introduction of the AfCFTA, and whether or not the agreement will spur/aid in the improvement of the Country’s economic fortunes through trade. From the findings, for Nigeria to benefit from implementation of the AfCFTA, human capacity, institutional challenges as well as critical infrastructure, need to be adequately addressed in a timely and systematically pursued with vigour. Keywords: African, Continental Free Trade, Agreement, Policy
Download Paper