Obiora assured that the CBN would provide the needed support
to stakeholders in the country’s financial sector to ensure that optimal
benefits were reaped from the AfCFTA agreement.
Also Dr. Hassan Mahmoud, Director, Monetary Policy
Department of the CBN, toed the line of the deputy governor saying the meeting
was an avenue to brainstorm on ways to enhance the capacity of the financial
sector to take full advantage of the AfCFTA agreements .
He assured of the resilience and the strength of the sector
to take the lead in driving continental trade, through the agreement.
Ambassador Yonov
Agah, Director General, Nigerian Office of Trade Negotiations (NOTN), assured
that his office would also work with all stakeholders in the area of
negotiations, to facilitate maximisation of the agreement’s benefits.
“On the expectations of what needs to be done, if you have
any issue with negotiations, we can work with you. You need to negotiate
amongst yourselves first, before going continental. We will work with you and
guide you to maximise the benefits,” he said.
According to Mr Haruna Mustafa, CBN’s Director, Banking
Supervision Department, the banking sector was expected to play a pivotal role
in the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement.
Haruna assured that Nigerian banks were well positioned to
play that important role within a fast growing continental population.
“The African population is projected at 1.7 billion by 2030.
This implies that intra-African trade will increase astronomically. The AfCFTA
agreement will lift more than 30 million Africans out of poverty.
“The numbers mean a lot of opportunities for banks. The
banks need to be well capitalised and as we speak the industry is well
capitalised, ” he said.
He urged financial institutions to operate with the highest
professional standards, to win the confidence of other stakeholders.
Mr Bello Hassan, Director, Other Financial Institutions
(OFI) Department, cited Development Finance Institutions, Discount Houses,
Finance Companies, Holding Companies, Merchant Banks and Micro-finance Banks,
as engine rooms for economic growth.
“Some of the OFIs are already undergoing a recapitalisation
drive to strengthen them to be more competitive,” he said.
He urged the OFIs to clean up their books, adopt
International Financial Reporting Standards and improve their internal control
systems.
“They should train their staff and rejig their business
practices. They should continue to engage other stakeholders, and support small
businesses to take full advantage of AfCFTA”, he said.
He added that with AfCFTA and the support of these financial
institutions, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) would be enabled to
produce goods and services for export.
“We expect an increase in trade in the continent and MSMEs
should be able to produce goods and services for export”, Hassan stressed.
Dr. Ozoemena Nnaji, Director, CBN’s Trade and Exchange
Department, however, said that a lot of bottlenecks needed to be removed for
Nigeria to reap maximum benefits from the AfCFTA agreement.
In particular, she identified the need to address the issue
of logistics at the existing ports of entry, as well as the opening up of
additional ports to accommodate the volume of expected trans-continental trade.
“We should also look at attracting more foreign direct
investment into critical sectors of the economy. We should improve on the
manufacturing sector to boost economic diversification agenda.
“Nigeria is the second largest exporter on the African
continent, accounting for about 19 per cent of all exports, we should,
therefore, work to improve on that, ” she said.