Emefiele Mobilises Nigerians For N258 Trillion AfCFTA Market

Governor Godwin Emefiele has called on Nigerian entrepreneurs to position themselves to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) which he said will give them preferential access to markets valued at N253.8 trillion ($666.17 billion).

Speaking to participants at the sixth Zenith Bank International Trade Seminar, the Central Bank governor also opened up on several initiatives by the apex bank towards strengthening the capacity of local entrepreneurs in the export market. he cited among others easing applications at the NXP portal, the imminent commencement of the commodities exchange market and incentives for repatriation of export proceeds.

Governor Emefiele addressed the virtual conference alongside other key speakers including Mr. Wamkele Mene, the secretary-general of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, AfCFTA; Mr. Bennedict Oramah, president of the Africa Export-Import Bank and others following a keynote address delivered by the Group Managing Director, GMD of Zenith Bank, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu.

While lauding Zenith Bank for its initiative in growing the non-oil exports sector, Mr. Emefiele in highlighting the advantages for Nigerians in the new AfCFTA, said:

“Full implementation of the  AFCFTA, is expected to give Nigerian firms preferential access to markets in Africa worth $504.17billion in goods & $162bn in services. I believe that we should seize this opportunity to ensure that Nigeria serve as a significant hub for international and domestic manufacturing companies seeking to serve the West, Central and East African Markets.

Noting efforts by the apex bank to enhance the position of private sector players, he said:

“At the CBN we have taken considerable steps to improve the productive capacity of businesses, which would enable them take advantage of export opportunities in Africa.

“Our intervention programs in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, are helping to enable businesses expand their scale of production, which is meeting growing domestic demand for goods, but also providing goods for the export market.

“In addition, we have set up a N500bn non-oil export stimulation facility with the Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM). This initiative will also help to enable greater exports of processed agriculture commodities into other markets in Africa and in the global market.”

Noting how the business environment is being improved, he said:

“Improving the business environment in Nigeria is also vital if we are to harness the gains from the AFCFTA. The Central Bank through our Trade Monitoring System portal (TRMS) is also helping to reduce the time it takes to complete the export documentation process, as faster turnaround time could help to reduce delivery time for goods destined for exports, and enable businesses expand their output.

“Today, businesses can complete their NXP applications on the TRMS portal in 30 minutes relative to two years ago, where it could take as much as two weeks to complete the process.”

Governor Emefiele also spoke on how the apex bank was pushing towards the implementation of the Commodities Exchange Market which he said would further strengthen the confidence of exporters and their foreign partners.

“We are also working with stakeholders in repositioning the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, which would help to support greater trade for operators in these vital sectors earlier mentioned.

“Once the exchange becomes fully operational in the 2nd half of the year, international buyers of raw and processed agricultural commodities will be able to enter into forward contracts with domestic suppliers on the exchange, and they can be assured of not only the quality of the goods sold through the exchange, but on the expected date of delivery.

“We believe these forward contracts will help to support improved productivity for farmers and agro-processors, it will also help to improve access to credit for these entities  using the forward contracts as collateral.”

Asking exporters to also reciprocate by ensuring quick repatriation of their export proceeds, he said:

“We would also like to urge existing exporters, that they endeavor to repatriate their export proceeds as required by law. The CBN guarantees that exporters will have unfettered access to their export proceeds. and we do expect that exporters would reciprocate the good gestures of the Bank by repatriating their export proceeds to improve foreign exchange inflows into the country.”

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