Law Professor Drums Support for AfCFTA to Boost Intra-African Trade

Raheem Akingbolu

For African states to be strong, united, resilient and become influential global player and partner, African countries should endeavour to trade more among themselves, adopt African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) and creation of the single African air transport market, Dean Faculty of Law of University of Abuja, Prof. Uwakwe Abugu, has stated.

Giving his keynote speech titled; ‘Enhancing Intra-African Trade Through Legislative Measures’, at the 2024 International Conference of West African Law Students’ Association (WALSA), held at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) house. Abuja, recently, Abugu said the potential of Intra-African trade, based on the International Trade Centre Potential Indicators methodology is estimated to surpass $69.4 billion export as of 2023.

According to him, this projection holds the potential to elevate the current level of intra-African trade to $261.6 billion, which would constitute 36 per cent of total intra-African trade.

He said, “According to IMF Direction of Trade Statistics, 2023, Afreximbank Research, contribution of five regions of Africa  to intra-African trade in order of highest to lowest is as follows: Southern Africa, West Africa, East Africa, North Africa and lastly Central Africa. The top ten contributors in order of highest to lowest are South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mali, Ghana, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and finally Namibia.

“In West Africa, Cote d’Ivoire made a significant expansion in its trade with the continent in 2023 increasing from $13.1 billion in 2022 to $16.1 billion in 2023 thus increasing the country’s share of total intra-African trade to about 8.4 per cent in 2023 from the 7.0 per cent in 2022, making it the second largest intra-African trading country in 2023.”

Speaking further, the university lecturer referenced a report which stated that in 2023 Nigeria experienced a 2.1 per cent decrease in its trade within the continent, totaling $8.0 billion, down from $8.2 billion in 2022 and this led to a marginal decline in the country’s share of total intra-African trade in 2023, decreasing to about 4.2 per cent from 4.4 percent in 2022.