The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, said Nigeria is strengthening its bilateral ties with other countries and also translating the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) commitment into reality.
 
She said this is being achieved through enhanced digital trade and partnerships that are giving businesses and traders genuine market access.
 
Speaking on the sidelines of this year’s Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF), the minister said the country has continued to focus on building strong bilateral ties across the world. She pointed out that the President was recently in Brazil, and Colombia’s Vice-President’s visit to Nigeria was to further trade ties between both countries, among other things.
 
She noted that in terms of fostering trade relationships, the country is doing well, making friends and concrete relationships, which are already producing tangible outcomes that feed into the prosperity required for Nigerians.
 
Revealing that the country is also very active in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, she said this led to the country hosting the first West African Economic Summit.
 
At the ECOWAS pavilion at the IATF, she noted, she was able to speak with real-life traders and paired ECOWAS traders with their southern and eastern African counterparts.
 
“It is a peer-to-peer situation and they will work together on textiles, cosmetics, leather, coffee and so on. Trade is actually happening, and the results will soon materialise,” she stated.
 
Touching on the recent air cargo corridor agreement with Uganda Air, she said this was necessary after mapping out a trade intelligence of 13 eastern and southern African countries, saying they have a flat rate to push out cargo. “We will continue to work on market access and standards, all of which are the practicalisation of the AfCFTA.”
 
Adding that every stand at the fair had a QR code to scan when people bought made-in-Nigeria goods, she said this was necessary to know where the market is and places they need to strengthen efforts in pushing Nigerian-made goods and services to.
 
“We also came here with our five-year AfCFTA implementation report, which is a roadmap that will guide our journey into implementing the AfCFTA properly. We must not forget that Nigeria is a digital co-trade champion and we lead in services trade, tech-led businesses, e-commerce, fintech, edutech, agrotech, healthtech and several other sectors.
 
“Nigerian businesses are doing very well tech-wise and with this as an enabler, as well as our public digital infrastructure, national single window (NSW) and immigration reforms; it is clear we are using technology both in government and through the private sector to lead not just for Nigeria as champions of AfCFTA but for the continent as a whole,” she said.