14th July, 2019
The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), has urged the Federal Government to formulate policies that will tackle challenges of regulations and competitiveness of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
ACCI President, Adetokunbo Kayode said this at a news conference on the challenges of AfCFTA in Abuja on Saturday.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on July 7, at the 12th Extraordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government in Niamey, Niger Republic signed the AfCFTA.
Kayode said that previous governments had made policies on industrial growth and revolution, adding that there was the need for the Federal Government to take industrial development issues seriously.
He said that the Organised Private Sector in Nigeria had been in the forefront of discussions on whether Nigeria should be part of the agreement.
Kayode, who is also AU Trade Policy Ambassador, said that lack of competitiveness was one of the challenges facing the agreement, as Nigeria was not competitive because of high cost of production.
He urged the government to put an end to regulations which were stumbling blocks to businesses, while advising government agencies to play their part for things to take shape.
“It is believed that our regulatory framework is opaque and we are not doing well in the Ease of Doing Business in spite of our efforts in the past two years.
“Instead of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) requiring for nine documents to enable export from the country, government can make it one document to boost exportation.
“Instead of pushing people from table to table by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at the Nigerian ports, it can embrace technology by using Single Window Scheme.
“We have issues about power generation among others, 90 per cent of these issues are government related, government needs to resolve these issues,” he said.