AfCFTA will tackle unemployment, insecurity, FG declares

The Federal Government said aside from creating wealth, the country’s dying industries will be revived through the $3.4trn African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement among the 54 countries in the continent.

Otunba Niyi Adebayo, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, stated this during the National Action Committee on AfCFTA’s sensitisation of stakeholders in Kaduna State on Tuesday.

The minister, represented by the Director, Trade Department of the ministry, Alhaji Abubakar Aliyu, stated that the AfCFTA was all about advancing industrialisation in the continent.

He said the agreement could only be successful when all Nigerians accept the opportunity to grab the benefit of the agreement.

The minister stated that when Nigeria key into the agreement, then insecurity, unemployment in the land, will decrease. He said as soon as Nigerian youths were occupied with trade, there would not be insecurity.

The minister said, “The agreement is about promoting industrialisation among ourselves.

“The agreement can only succeed when the states key into it. It is important that all the states key into it. Not everybody will take their products to Africa.

“The first question we should ask ourselves is: what is the source of insecurity? It has roots in unemployment; so we need to tackle unemployment.

“As you are tackling unemployment, if you are producing and you don’t have where to sell, then the product will fail.

“You remember when people come from all over Africa to buy from Nigeria. The more people are engaged in job creation, the less people will be available to terrorism and criminal activities.

“The agreement is what will guide trade in the country. Nobody said this agreement would solve our problem. There were industries that were valuable before, now they are not again.”

Francis Anatogu, Secretary of the National Action Committee on AfCFTA, said The National Action Committee on AfCFTA started nationwide awareness and sensitisation tour.

It is in line with its mandate to prepare Nigeria to take advantage of the AfCFTA Agreement while reducing its threats to the Nigerian economy.

He said, “Our mandate at the National Action Committee is to coordinate the activities of private and public sectors at federal and subnational levels to implement AfCFTA for the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians.

“Our strategy is to work with the states based on their areas of comparative advantages and priorities as a way of building up our national export trade and creating jobs at grassroots level.”

He added, “The core objective of the AfCFTA is to create a single market for goods, services, and free movement of persons in order to deepen the economic integration of the African continent.

“The AFCFTA is expected to deliver an integrated continental market of 1.27 billion consumers with aggregate GDP of $3.4trn.”

In addition, he said that Nigeria made up an important portion of the figures that were largely spread through all parts of the states.