‘Trade agreements with African countries will benefit Nigerians’

State governments in Nigeria have been urged to enter into trade and investment partnerships with African nations to boost intra-African trade and improve the welfare and prosperity of indigenes of their states.

The President of the Nigeria-Namibia Chamber of Commerce, Ben Gbade Ojo made the call at the Namibia-Delta State Trade and Investment Summit held in Warri, Delta State.

Ojo said state governments in Nigeria can boost their economies and create more employment opportunities for their people by promoting and engaging in trade and investment relations with African countries.

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According to Ojo, “Trade is widely accepted as an important engine of economic growth and development. There are many regions and countries of the world that have been able to lift their people from poverty to prosperity through trade.

“In Africa however, trade has not served as a potent instrument for the achievement of rapid and sustainable economic growth and development.

“Intra-African trade stands at around 13% compared to approximately 60%, 40 %, 30% intra-regional trade that has been achieved by Europe, North America and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) respectively.

“That African countries do not trade much with each other has meant that they have been unable to fully harness the synergies and complementarities of their economies and take full advantage of the economies of scale and other benefits (such as income and employment generation) that greater market integration would have provided.

“Enhancing intra-African trade presents a multitude of benefits. It fosters the evolution of regional value chains and catalyzes productivity and innovation” adding that intra-African trade also enhances economies of scale which means that “as the scale of output goes up, average costs of production decline—at least up to a point.”

He congratulated the Delta State Government on this visionary initiative and called on all other states to join Delta State in promoting international trade and investments for the prosperity of their people and states.

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