The Nigerian government has called for an extension of the United State’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beyond its 2025 deadline. Speaker, House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, made the call yesterday while speaking during the AGOA training workshop organised by USAID and Prosper Africa for stakeholders in Nigeria’s Textile and Apparel industry.

Abbas said AGOA has been crucial in fostering trade and economic development between Africa and the United States by providing African countries access to U.S. markets and allowing them to diversify their economies beyond raw materials.

He, however, noted that even though Nigeria is a beneficiary of the policy and has great potential to capitalise on the opportunities, many Nigerian businesses remain unaware of the programme, thus limiting their chances of benefitting from it.

Stressing the need for awareness among Nigerian businesses, he said an extension of the programme would allow more Nigerian and African businesses to take full advantage of it.

“We must increase knowledge and understanding of AGOA within our business community so that more Nigerian companies can take full advantage of this value-added framework. As we move forward, I urge the U.S. government to consider extending AGOA’s 2025 deadline and this will benefit African economies and align with U.S. strategic interests by creating new markets and promoting regional stability. The U.S.-Nigeria Parliamentary Friendship Group will advocate for this renewal, further strengthening our partnership,” he said.

In 2015, the U.S. Congress passed legislation extending the programme to 2025. 32 countries, including Nigeria, are eligible for the programme. Speaking on why the workshop was being organised, USAID Nigeria Mission Director, Melissa Jones, observed that Nigeria has gone through a lot of economic challenges including the hike in the price of fuel, high inflation and food insecurity.

According to her, what would get the country out of the current challenges is economic diversification. She said this is why the workshop was focusing on the textile industry, which is capable of driving Nigeria’s exports beyond oil.

“The apparel and textile industry presents such an important opportunity, as I mentioned, to diversify, but also to create jobs and contribute to the inclusive growth of this country. Prosper Africa has been so critical in bringing all of the U.S. government together to help nations in Africa to move this forward,” she said.

Since its enactment in 2000, AGOA has been at the core of U.S. economic policy and commercial engagement with Africa; providing eligible African countries duty-free access to the U.S. market for over 1,800 products, in addition to the over 5,000 products eligible for duty-free access under the Generalised System of Preferences programme.