The Federal Government in a bid to boost trade within the West African region on Tuesday signed an agreement with the government of Cameroon to remove impediments to trade.
The move, according to the Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Odumodu would help to foster a closer working relationship that would bring the two countries together through the use of standards.
The Federal Government in a bid to boost trade within the West African region on Tuesday signed an agreement with the government of Cameroon to remove impediments to trade.
The move, according to the Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Odumodu would help to foster a closer working relationship that would bring the two countries together through the use of standards.
Odumodu signed on behalf of the federal government while the Director General of the Standards and Quality Agency of Cameroon, Mr. Charles Booto signed on behalf of his country.
The agreement, signed at the headquarters of SON in Abuja, was witnessed by senior government officials as well as the Cameroonian Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Soloa Abass.
Explaining the significance of the Memorandum of Understanding, the SON DG said the agreement would help both countries relate better by improving all technical barriers to trade and improving trade volumes.
He described the event as a turning point for businessmen from both counties who had sought the removal of hindrances to free flow of goods and services.
He said, “The purpose of signing this MoU is to foster a closer working relationship using standards.
“This will help our economies to relate better by improving all technical barriers to trade and improving trade volumes.”
Beyond signing the agreement, Odumodu said that a faithful implementation of all aspects contained in the agreement would be carried out to foster regional integration using standards.
“There is a lot of activities going on in the informal sector in Cameroon, this MoU will begin to redefine the type of trade and also the quality of trade so that we can begin to capture them into the total volume of trade between Nigeria and Cameroon.
“It is very important because if you don’t know what is happening, you will not be able to build on where you are and I think that it is most critical that we need to remove technical barriers to trade between the two countries.
“And I can tell you that this is the beginning of a new relationship between Nigeria and Cameroon in terms of trade.”
Also speaking at the event, Abass described the pact as historic in view of the fact that a huge volume of trading activities takes place in the informal sector.
He said recent statistics have shown that Nigeria is now the highest trading partner to Cameroon adding that the MoU would help to deepen trade between both countries.
Discussion about this post