Nigeria’s recent signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCTA) would become counter-productive if a national industrial policy and infrastructural development masterplan is not quickly drawn up and swiftly implemented, the Senate warned on Thursday.
Consequently, the Senate urged President Muhammadu Buhari to take concrete steps towards putting the recommended master plan to work immediately, if Nigeria is to benefit from AfCTA, stressing that at current level the country can’t compete with a number of AfCTA members.
It tasked the Federal Government to create more economic zones to reduce the cost of production in the country as one of the measures to ready Nigeria for the inevitable competition AfCTA would engendered.
The Senate took the resolutions at plenary after considering a motion by Senator Barau Jibrin, (Kano North) on Nigeria’s membership of AfCTA .
President Muhammadu Buhari recently signed the AfCTA at the 12th Extraordinary Summit of the African Union held in Niamey, Niger Republic.
The Upper Chamber urged the Federal Government to pay better attention to the existing industrial hubs by creating necessary infrastructure within the areas to encourage investors while mandating the relevant agencies to galvanise the Nigeria business community to leverage on the huge benefits of AfCTA.
It urged asked the Federal Government to be the main driving force for the success of Nigeria’s membership by ensuring that policies and programmes aligned with AfCTA provisions.
Nigeria hasn’t even fixed the power problem that has plagued us for decades. There’s absolutely no way to have a competitive advantage with that.