The Federal Government, yesterday, claimed that Nigeria has emerged a pacesetter in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA), recording a series of groundbreaking achievements in 2025 that position the country as a leader in continental trade cooperation.
This comes as the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, under Dr Jumoke Oduwole, orchestrated a comprehensive reinvigoration of Nigeria’s engagement with the AfCFTA framework, securing multiple firsts and strategic recognitions that underscore the country’s commitment to trade-led regional integration.
In a development that signals Nigeria’s readiness to compete in the continental market, the country became the first AfCFTA state party to conclude and publish a review of implementation at the mandatory five-year mark in July 2025. The self-assessment, mandated by Article 28 of the AfCFTA Agreement, represents an evaluation of challenges and successes that have informed subsequent policy actions.
According to the assessment, the digital trade sector emerged as a focal point of Nigeria’s AfCFTA strategy. President Bola Tinubu received an appointment as co-champion of the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade alongside Kenya and South Africa by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in February 2025. This recognition came with commendation from the continental body for advancing digital trade across Africa.
Nigeria’s approval of the ratification of the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade in November 2025 marked another milestone, making the country the first state party to ratify this critical instrument. The move signals readiness to advance intra-African digital trade and provides Nigerian digital products with preferential treatment and enhanced regulatory protections across the continent.
The ministry conducted the first-ever national mapping of digital services in April 2025, generating a directory of over 200 digital service firms operating in 17 distinct sectors. These firms have expressed willingness to explore the African market, with Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa identified as priority destinations.
Building on the mapping exercise, Nigeria convened the inaugural AfCFTA Regional Digital Trade Market Access and Regulators’ Roundtable in October 2025 with the five priority countries. The roundtable established a Regional Regulators’ Working Group designed to facilitate market access, streamline regulatory approvals and support continuous dialogue to benefit Nigerian digital services.
On trade in goods, Nigeria gazetted its Provisional Schedule of Tariff Concessions in April 2025, fulfilling obligations under Articles 8 and 9 of the Protocol on Trade in Goods. This action means Nigeria now applies preferential and reduced tariffs on goods originating in Africa, while Nigerian-made goods receive similar preferential treatment in other compliant state parties.
To support exporters, the ministry launched a dedicated Exports Air Cargo Corridor to East and Southern Africa in partnership with Uganda Airlines and the United Nations Development Programme. Cargo rates on this corridor are 50 to 75 per cent cheaper than prevailing comparative market rates, providing Nigerian businesses with significant competitive advantages.
The ministry also published a market intelligence tool covering cosmetics, agro-processed products and textiles across 13 East and Southern African markets in collaboration with the UNDP. The tool provides Nigerian businesses with insights into trade trends for better-informed market decisions.
Nigeria submitted its Schedule of Specific Commitments for Trade in Services to the Economic Community of West African States Commission in October 2025. After gazetting, Nigerian services suppliers in over 90 specific services across five AfCFTA priority sectors—business services, communication services, financial services, transport and tourism—will benefit from preferential treatment in AfCFTA state parties.
The country secured significant hosting rights that cement its position as a continental trade hub. In September 2025, Nigeria won the bid to host the Intra-African Trade Fair 2027 and its precursor, the Creative Africa Nexus 2026. The Intra-African Trade Fair represents Africa’s largest marketplace, organised by the African Export-Import Bank in collaboration with the African Union Commission and the AfCFTA Secretariat.
Nigeria also won hosting rights for the second edition of the AfCFTA Digital Forum in May 2025 and secured the bid to host the 2026 meeting of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers. These platforms will provide opportunities to showcase Nigerian trade capabilities and influence continental trade policy.
Institutional architecture for implementation received significant attention. The ministry inaugurated the AfCFTA Central Coordination Committee in March 2025, establishing a whole-of-economy structure that brings together over 20 key stakeholder institutions in the public and private sectors. This structure strengthens multi-stakeholder coordination of Nigeria’s efforts for effective implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement and its protocols.
The committee convened the AfCFTA Public Sector, Private Sector and Press Summit in November 2025 to foster a common understanding of the AfCFTA framework and its implications for Nigeria.
The summit launched a nationwide AfCFTA Sensitisation and Consultation Campaign designed to formulate a national blueprint ensuring the agreement works for Nigeria.
Constituent institutions of the committee have articulated clear roles and responsibilities for AfCFTA implementation, with the framework of the National Action Plan now publicly available. An AfCFTA Institutional Barometer has been developed to enable performance assessment and ensure accountability of constituent institutions.
The ministry, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, plans to work with state governments to ensure every local government area identifies at least one product for export to the AfCFTA market. This grassroots approach aims to democratise participation in continental trade.
At the global forum, Oduwole engaged the international trade and investment community on opportunities under the AfCFTA, advocating for investment in Africa’s productive capacity and trade infrastructure. These engagements included participation at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meetings, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the World Economic Forum.
Looking ahead to 2026, the ministry has outlined an ambitious agenda that includes regulatory alignment with the AfCFTA Agreement, publication of guidance materials for the private sector, enhancement of institutional coordination, and improvement of trade data systems to capture disaggregated metrics on AfCFTA trade flows.
The ministry will develop a trade intelligence platform to serve as a digital public infrastructure repository of market insights from governments, trade associations and consumers. Investment mobilisation efforts with foreign and domestic investors will prioritise exponential increases in productive capacity in key sectors to position Nigeria as the innovation, production and distribution hub of the AfCFTA market.
Nigeria’s achievements come against the backdrop of the AfCFTA Agreement, which establishes an economic arrangement ensuring African producers, investors, traders and workers can profitably convert opportunity and effort to prosperity through progressive elimination of tariffs, removal of barriers and regulatory cooperation among state parties.
The ministry emphasised that Nigeria remains Africa’s champion of trade-led regional integration, being the birthplace of significant continental instruments underpinning the AfCFTA Agreement, including the Lagos Plan of Action of 1980 and the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community of 1991, also known as the Abuja Treaty. Negotiations for the AfCFTA Agreement were concluded in Nigeria in 2017, with the country signing the agreement in 2019 and ratifying it in 2020.
The comprehensive approach adopted by the ministry reflects recognition that Africa’s economic development ambitions are inseparable from the ambitions of the AfCFTA market, with the key argument being that Africa retains more value when trading with itself.
