The President Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ACCI, Dr. Al Mujtaba Abubukar, has said that as Nigeria is grooming her business class for continental trade, other African nations are also on the same race.
The president ACCI, disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the 16th Abuja International Trade Fair recently in Abuja. He noted that the private sector must be ready to capitalise on the readiness of the government to deploy all state apparatus in support of Nigeria’s participation in AFCFTA.
According to him, “It is in realsation of the above that Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry ACCI decided and chose this year’s theme “Exploring Opportunities of the Africa Continent Free Trade Area AFCFTA”.
In his welcome address, Dr. Al Mujtaba stated that, “As a chamber, we have embarked on series of activities to strengthen the capacity of our members and the private sector as a whole to be strong players at continental level.” Through our four centres, we emphasis capacity training for export market, trans-national alternative dispute resolution programme for pro-business policy and gathering together of stakeholders.”
He further stated that ACCI is actively partnering with relevant regulatory agencies such as Nigeria Export Promotion Council, NEPC to ease business and to upscale the capacity building for export stakeholders. “We are working closely with SMEDAN to ensure effective implementation of the new National Policy on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise MSME.” Our relationship with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Industry FMITI is mutually beneficial as the ministry has become a major facilitator of ease of doing business in the country.
For Nigeria to benefit from AFCFTA and retain her position as the biggest economy on the continent, we must continue to work to improve our records on ease of doing business. In addition to the action plans already created by the nation AFCFTA committee, a deliberate emergency action must be taken to ease the export process, ensure a single export clearing desk for exporters, force regulators to become facilitators and declare export facilitation as a national emergency.”
As a nation facing low export and high import and facing stiff competition from over 50 nations under AFCFTA, we must take export mobilisation as an emergency.
He also disclosed that the presidency should summon leaders of agencies in the export sector to enforce single desk clearance for exporters. This is the only way to ensure Nigeria’s competitiveness and strengthen as the biggest economy on the continent he added.
