African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and Economic Development in Nigeria

African Continental Free Trade Agreement

Abstract

Over the years, Africa’s inter-trade portfolio has consistently fallen short when positioned in comparison with what obtains 
in its relations with trade blocs outside of Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA)
represents the latest resolve of African countries, articulated by the African Union (AU), to reverse this trend. And this reality 
is particularly against the backdrop of the failures of previous economic integration efforts and development agenda to yield 
significant economic development for the African countries. This paper explores the prospects of economic development in 
Nigeria through the lens of AfCFTA’s aspirations. It gives a historical background with previous national attempts to achieve 
economic development within the context of set goals in those development agenda. Noting that the manufacturing and 
agriculture sectors stand as Nigeria’s best chance of maximising the potentials of the AfCFTA in the comparative advantage 
sense, the paper also raises the need
development of policies that not only support Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria with the needed 
access to the wider African markets but also protect their interests so they are not shortchanged by those of the bigger 
organisations. These policy actions, the paper proposes, should happen together with other policy postures to boost Nigeria’s 
manufacturing and agricultural overall outputs in order to play a significant role in intra-African trade