Nigeria, others should implement AfCFTA promptly, says Oramah

Amid the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, African countries have been advised to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area without delay.

The President and Chairman, Board of Directors, African Export–Import Bank, Prof. Benedict Oramah, gave the advice on Monday during the 2020 edition of United Bank for Africa’s Africa Conversations.

The virtual high-level leadership panel discussion was moderated by the Chairman, UBA and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu. It was organised in celebration of Africa Day 2020.

Oramah said, “I think the priority of our governments should be to make sure that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement gets implemented without delay.

“If there was any doubt about the importance of that agreement that our leaders so courageously put in place just about two years ago, this COVID-19 pandemic has told us that this is the way to go.”

The implementation of the AfCFTA, which is expected to yield a 60 per cent increase in intra-African trade by 2022, was slated to begin on July 1.

Oramah said all reservations should be put aside “so that we can build supply chains across Africa.”

“This is the only way we can begin to foster dynamic growth in our continent. If we do not do that, we will remain perpetual commodity exporters, and we see what perpetual commodity exporters suffer when we have events like this. Oil prices have crashed, not only did they crash, there was no market for it,” he said.

He noted that countries, companies and individuals were looking for medical supplies, pharmaceutical supplies, and certain kinds of food the continent did not have the infrastructure to produce them.

The Afreximbank boss said, “We were waiting to be supplied from outside but the supply chains were all disrupted. So, the AfCFTA is the answer, and we must waste no time; we must use this opportunity to overcome whatever challenges that we may have at our country levels and even collectively as a continent.

“When we start with it, we will then be able to gradually build the health infrastructure, the manufacturing base, and the physical infrastructure that will connect us so that when we are confronted with events like this, we will be able to handle them.”