The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could potentially drive economic growth in Africa.
This was stated by LCCI’s President Toki Mabogunje at an event tagged ‘African Continental Free Trade Agreement: Roadmap to successful implementation’, adding that African countries, despite coming into trade agreements are yet to take advantage of the treaty.
She noted that the AfCFTA “marks the biggest free trade area globally in terms of number of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organization in 1995.
“The trade agreement was borne out of the need to deepen economic integration on the continent considering the Africa’s low intra-regional trade volume in relation to other continents like America, Europe, and Asia.
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“AfCFTA has the potential to accelerate socioeconomic development of the African continent. A well-implemented AfCFTA will stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and facilitate the economic diversification of African economies.
“Estimates by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa revealed that AfCFTA has the capacity to expand Africa’s manufacturing output to $930bn by 2025, from $500bn in 2016. The Brookings Institution see Africa’s economic size rising to $6.7tn by 2030 from $3.4bn in 2019 on the back of a well-implemented AfCFTA.”
On tariff reduction between signatory countries, she said, “There is still a lack of clarity on the type of value addition that must occur within an AfCFTA state party for a product to benefit from tariff reduction. A great deal of sensitisation and enlightenment still need to be done on the implementation modalities.”
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