The Sea Empowerment and Research Center (SEREC), has urged the Federal Government to harmonise its strategies and strengthen cooperation to accelerate the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Mr Eugene Nweke, Head Researcher of the center said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
Nweke also called for the ratification and domestication of key charters and protocols.
According to him, the Road Safety Charter, Maritime Transport Charter and Luxembourg Protocol on Railway Rolling Stocks needed to be ratified.
“We call for the creation of an enabling environment for private sector and public-private partnerships to build institutional capacities and implement necessary policies and regulatory frameworks.
“We recommend that Nigerian government designates a national correspondence desk for effective coverage of AfCFTA-related activities,” he said.
Nweke said that government should develop a national policy framework to fast-track the creation of an enabling environment for private sector and public-private partnerships.
He urged the government to take proactive steps to implement the AfCFTA and address the challenges facing infrastructure development in Nigeria.
He raised concerns over the AfCFTA Specialised Technical Committee on Transport, Transcontinental and Interregional Infrastructure and Energy of the African Transport resolutions.
Nweke said that projecting 60,000km to 100,000km of new roads by 2030 to meet demands for effective intercontinental connectivity might be impossible.
According to him, the infrastructural pace could not match the increasing demand from African communities and markets, hence impacting negatively on competitiveness and participation in global markets.
He said: “The Action Plan for the implementation of PIDA-PAP2 contains 69 large-scale projects, expected to cost over 160 billion dollars for a 10-year implementation plan.
“However, project financing and implementation challenges have been encountered, with 50 per cent of PIDA-PAP1 projects failing to reach the construction stage and 30 per cent failing to go beyond the feasibility stage.”
Nweke said that in spite of the challenges, successes have been recorded in the transport sector, with 16,066 kilometers of roads and 4,077 kilometers of railways developed.
He also said that in the energy sector, 3,506 kilometers of transmission lines have been installed, lighting the way for 232 GW of electricity and connecting African electrical networks.
He said that there was need for the government to address impediments to universal infrastructure services including policy, regulatory, financial, technical and capacity challenges.
He called for intervention on new emerging challenges such as climate change and the disruptions in global supply chains.
Nweke advised Nigerians and stakeholders to demand transparency and information dissemination from the AfCFTA implementation secretariat.
This, he said was the only way to ensure accountability in order for Nigeria to truly benefit from the AfCFTA and achieves its development goals.
