A former Deputy Executive Secretary, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr Sola Afolabi, has urged the Federal Government to pay attention to the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and Africa Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) to promote trade on the continent.
Afolabi spoke at a lecture entitled, “The Trajectory of Trans-West African Travel and Trade; 1975 till Date and the Way Forward”, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos.
He argued that the ECOWAS ETLS remains the best agreement that will be beneficial to the country. He said, “ETLS is still the best of all free trade agreement, if Nigeria cannot trade well with Benin and Ghana, how are they going to trade well with other countries outside ECOWAS?
According to him, nothing is working as regards trade in Africa because past Nigerian Government signed “very quickly, but implement it slowly”.
Afolabi said: “ACFTA is specifically our future; it needs a clearer insight because the vision for the trade has to be focused.
On why Nigeria should strengthen its hold on the implementation of the ETLS, he disclosed that the European Union is strong because they analyse agreements before endorsing same.
“That is why the European Union is strong, not because they loved themselves but because they have safety net by analysing critically before signing any agreement.
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