The Federal Government says it aimed at delivering tangible economic benefits to Nigerians by expanding trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole who stated this on Monday in Kano said, the initiative is designed to boost income generation by enabling Nigerians to export locally made products across African markets.
“At the end of the day, what Mr President wants is prosperity, for Nigerians to have money in their pockets.”
According to the minister, a key component of the strategy is to ensure that every local government area identifies and develops at least one exportable product.
“The objective of Mr President is that every local government will have one product that they want to export to the rest of Africa.”
She stated that the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, in collaboration with relevant agencies, is intensifying efforts to educate and train businesses on export procedures while also simplifying information in local languages.
“We simplified the information and translated it, not only in English, but also in Arabic and Hausa.”
The minister noted that Nigeria had made significant progress in implementing the AfCFTA, having identified strong demand in other African countries for Nigerian products.
“They said they wanted our clothes, our chinchin, our zobo, and they were interested in our shea butter.”
She added that to tackle logistics constraints, the government partnered with Uganda Air, resulting in a reduction of air cargo costs.
“That joint negotiation brought down the price by 50 to 75 per cent for businesses to export to those African countries.”
The minister further disclosed that plans were underway to establish trade houses, strengthen export infrastructure, and modernise key ports to facilitate seamless trade.
She also highlighted the introduction of the National Single Window system as a major step towards improving trade facilitation.
“The project is now. We have already started implementation, and we are here to ensure that people know how to export their products”, she added.