Oluyinka Onigbinde
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has explained why the country is yet to begin trading on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) portal.
Recall that Shipping Position Daily had exclusively reported two weeks ago that countries such as: Ghana, Egypt, Cameroun, Kenya, Rwanda have all completed the mandatory trading requirements for the intra-Africa trade.
Nigeria is however leading the pack of countries delaying the actual take-off and trading on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) platform.
But, reacting to the story and giving reasons Nigeria is yet to join the league of countries that has completed the mandatory trading requirements, the National Coordinator of AfCFTA Nigeria, Francis Anatogu, in a chat with our correspondent blamed the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for the delay in joining other countries who have essentially completed the mandatory requirements necessary for the intra-African trade.
Anatogu who is also the Special Adviser to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Public Affairs informed that the Preferential Trade Process (PTP) that will allow for the country to meet with all the necessary requirements is still being delayed by the NCS.
He disclosed that the PTP is the major requirement for Nigeria to join the league of African countries that have to meet the required requirements.
“Essentially, we are yet to conclude the preferential trade process for AfCFTA. Customs is currently working on it and it will be rolled out shortly. This is the main requirement for trade to start. There are a lot of other things to do” he said.
However, speaking exclusively with our correspondent, the Comptroller Trade and Tariff of the NCS, who is in charge of Trade Facilitation and represents the service at AfCFTA, Comptroller Anthony Ayalogu, denied that Customs was actually responsible for the country’s delay to participate in AfCFTA.
He stated that trading has not commenced in any of the participating African countries, explaining that those countries that have completed the mandatory trading requirements necessary for the intra-Africa trade are running a guided trade to identify pitfalls that will form part of the amendment to start trading properly.
According to him: “For now there is no trading anywhere, the immediate thing should be approval on a strategic level as to many other things that needed to be put in place for trading to start and that is why those countries doing the trial are trying it, so they are not starting trading, they are doing trial to identify loopholes and remedy them as the planning goes.
“Trading has not started, but it is being tested to see that what has been put in place is working. In Nigeria the procedures that have been set out by Customs have been presented and confirmed, but the issues that are there are the little hitches that come with new procedures, it will not stop trading when trading starts.
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“It is not true that Customs are the ones delaying the trade from starting, but that trade has not started continentally. What we are about to start at the end of September is a guided trade to identify pitfalls that will form part of the amendment to start trading”.
When asked what is delaying the PTP, he said “Customs is the designated competent authority to issue certificates of origin and endorse them for trade. What Customs have done after that is that the service export field officers and the focal point of Customs at the headquarters have centered all our digital stamps to all the import points in all the countries that have certified the AfCFTA agreement.
“Today, we are in receipt of all the trading countries all over Africa. We have all their signatures and stamp in other to compare their certificates of origin and they also have ours”.
He explained that, “so far, all the attributes and components of identification have been sent out and we’ve received that of other countries that have sent theirs, we are ready, we have set out the procedures and we are only trying to cross the ‘t’ and dot the ‘i’ . What we are trying to do is just to put connectivity and that will be on, however we are taking cognizance of the pace of AfCFTA and it is on that pace we are following and we intend that when trading starts proper that we will be very much ready”.
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