ACFTA: Nigerians demand free, fair deal ―Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday said Nigeria was yet to sign the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) because of the need to aggregate what Nigerians wanted from the deal.

Declaring open the 25th Annual General Meeting (AGM)) of the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim) in Abuja, Buhari, however, disclosed that the consultation process was almost over.

“No nation can survive on its own. Trading is important and the terms of trade are important.

“Therefore, there is a need to ensure our national interests, as well as our regional and international obligations, are balanced.

“Accordingly, I directed the relevant agencies to conduct intensive and extensive consultations across the nation on the Continental Free Trade Agreement.

“Nigeria is a Federation of 36 States plus FCT Abuja, 774 Local Governments and millions of interested stakeholders who must be consulted with and listened to, in order to ensure an optimum outcome.

“Significant progress has been made in these consultations. The team have met key stakeholders across our six geo-political zones.

“The responses have been diverse as would be expected.

“However, one clear message has emerged which is that any trade agreement must be both “free’ and ‘fair’.

“This fairness is achievable and we will work towards it”, he disclosed.

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Giving a highlight of the bank’s performance in the 2017 financial year, President and Board chairman of Afrexim Bank, Dr Benedict Oranmah said ownership of the bank grew to 50 African states while Russian Federation also became a shareholder.

The bank also added over $500 million equity mobilisation while its reserve grew by 20 per cent to $645 million with shareholders fund hitting $2.1 billion.

Oranmah explained that Afrexim Bank has created a subsidiary known as Fund for Africa’s Export Development (FunFED) with an initial capitalisation of $100 million but is expected to rapidly grow to $1 billion and will commence operations in September 2018.

He said FunFED) was conceived to plug some gaps created by the dearth of foreign direct investment flows into the continent.

At the AGM, Nigeria’s Finance minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun was elected as chairman for the 2017/2018 financial year.