As African countries synergise to deepen intra-continental trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has called for the creation of a continental payment system.
He said this at a conference convened by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) themed, “Positioning African Industries for Economic Transformation and Continental Free Trade”.
The VP said, “It is quite essential to develop and deepen inter-regional and continental payments systems. It is particularly important in this regard to rapidly operationalize the effort by Afreximbank to establish a Pan-African payments and settlement platform.
“This will go a long way in creating the desired continental payments system and also in facilitating cross-border informal trade which is estimated to be about $93 billion per annum.”
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The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, who was present at the conference urged governments to ensure that barriers to competitiveness are removed to ensure ease of business.
He said, “It would be good to study the reasons why the previous trading blocs did not enable intra-Africa trade to exceed 15 percent of total trade and what can be done differently. These problems don’t suddenly disappear under AfCFTA.
“It is therefore vital for governments to continuously focus on removing barriers to competitiveness. That is the real ease of doing business, not how many days it takes to register a company.”
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