AGOA deal, an opportunity to improve non-oil export, says NACC

In an effort to address the challenges in the non-oil export sector in the country, the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) has urged Federal Government to expedite measures on implementing the extended African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme in Nigeria.

Essentially, under the programme’s extended regime, African countries would be engaged in the rules of origin to engender value-addition of raw materials as they could now include the cost of direct processing, as they share production from one country to another on their way to the U.S. market.

Speaking at a business roundtable in Lagos, President, NACC, Chief Olabintan Famutimi, said, more than ever before Nigeria is desperate for economic diversification and we have arrived at the point of no return in our quest for those critical tools that would help develop trade and commerce outside oil, strengthen and grow our Small Medium Enterprises, our manufacturing sectors, and add value to growth.

Famutimi said: “When the Act was established, the Nigerian private sector in particular, believed in the golden opportunity being offered to us by this Act to genuinely shift paradigms; think outside oil, invest in and develop our second economy”.

He stated that nearly 15 years after the approval of AGOA, Nigeria’s export to the US under this Act totaled a miserly $2.6 million when South Africa did in excess of $1.2 billion.

“Petroleum products continued to account for the largest portion of US AGOA imports with a 69 per cent share of overall AGOA imports in 2014.
“In the same year, U.S. imports decreased mostly oil from Nigeria by 67 per cent. It is therefore in understanding the reason for this downward spiral as attributable to the decline in US import of merchandise associated with oil, that the need to break the jinx of our dependence on oil as our key foreign exchange earner should equally be understood, he said.

According to him, AGOA can create more than 1,000,000 direct jobs in Nigeria in a few years if we get our act together. What AGOA can do for Nigeria in terms of job creation cannot be underscored.

“Since the passage of the Act, AGOA has generated about 350,000 direct jobs and 1,000,000 indirect jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa, he said.
He noted that after completing its initial 15-year period of validity, AGOA was on 29th of June 2015 extended by a further 10 years, to 2025 which means that the US has graciously given us another 10 years to pump up our exports under AGOA and improve regional trade as well.

“With the 10-year extension, we can indeed continue to take advantage of the duty-free status afforded African goods entering the American market under AGOA, and investors can plan for the future”.

He said NACC is determined not to let another 10 years of AGOA slip through its fingers. “We have taken it as a key responsibility to ensure that we collaborate with public and private stakeholders in bringing the value of AGOA to our people. This sensitization programme is only one of several steps in that direction. Through public-private partnerships, we must continue to find solutions to constraints to bilateral trade and commerce initiatives like AGOA”, he explained.

He however called on President Buhari and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment to put in place measures to ensure the effective implementation of AGOA in the country.