Afreximbank director: Why Nigeria should participate in intra-Africa trade fair

Kanayo Awani, managing director of Intra-African Trade Initiative at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), says Nigeria stands a lot to gain by participating at a trade fair scheduled to take place in Egypt in December.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Monday, Awani said the trade fair would be an avenue to build trade information and open up investment opportunities within the continent.

She said trade would go smoothly within the continent when buyers and sellers know the rules of trade in the various African countries – an opportunity the fair would create.

“People don’t know which market there are in Africa, where the sources of raw materials. What are the various standards and requirements and that is at the heart of the trade fair. That is a way to build information,” the MD said.

“When you bring buyers and sellers, you build information and you know where to buy your material from. Which are the markets? Who are the buyers in Africa? What are the rules of trade in various African countries and as a way to do that so that different people can trade.

“We did a study with UNTAD which shows that countries like Nigeria and Mauritia imports a lot of products from Italy. But Botswana, for instance, exports globally. You will see that there are opportunities by the time you look at what we import as Africans and what we import as Africans. We are exporting as much as we can buy internally.

“The need to make information available or build trade information not just for trade alone but investment opportunities from Africa into Africa.”

‘NIGERIA WILL SIGN AfCTA’

On his part, Segun Awolowo, executive director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), said the country would sign the African free continental trade agreement (AfCTA).

“Nigeria is not skeptical about it. The president has explained that he wants more consultation. Nigeria is a federation of many states, you don’t just jump into it. When you going into something like this it is a new marriage. He has told you he is going to sign. Nigeria is going to sign it, Nigeria is going to drive it,” he said.

“The challenge that many other countries have is that Nigeria will dominate their markets. We don’t want any country to come and dump goods on us and in the agreement there is anti-dumping. There is the process of anti-dumping that gaurds against that.”

He said the trade fair would afford the country an opportunity to connect to Africa.

“It is a big platform to connect to Africa. Most of our export go to Africa in informal trade. It is largely recorded or undocumented but now we are having a platform that will showcase Nigeria goods to Africa. It is going to be a big advantage to all our manufacturers particularly our SMEs and MSMEs and connect them to our business partners,” Awolowo said.

“We are used to exporting raw materials. The fact that we want to do manufactured and process goods means it is a delicate step.”