AfCFTA, UNECA Unveil Enhanced Market Access Guide and E-commerce Platform to assist Women And Youth, Others.
The Nigeria’s African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Coordination Office in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) have unveiled the enhanced ‘Market Access Guide and E-Commerce Platform’ formed to assist women and youth business owners and traders in Nigeria.
This initiative was done in partnership with other key partners, especially the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) to boost the competitiveness of women and youth under the AfCFTA framework, as well as helping them understand areas of opportunity, how to access the markets where the opportunities exist, using the platform for visibility, matchmaking, among others.
The final validation of the guide which was themed “Enhancing The Competitiveness Of Women And Youth In The AfCFTA” took place in Lagos with various stakeholders in attendance, including the Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment (FMITI), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NEXIM Bank, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), National Agency for Food, Drug, Administration and Control (NAFDAC), NEXPORTRADE, products and trade associations, as well as the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
In her remarks, the Nigeria AfCFTA Coordination Office, represented by Ms. Achimugu Franca commended the commitment of the National coordinator, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo in supporting Nigerian businesses to export under AfCFTA framework.
Achimugu explained that these tools were one of several efforts made by the coordination office in ensuring that businesses make the most out of the AfCFTA.
She listed the project in 3-fold as follows:
- Undertake a study to identify 10 top traded products by women and youth in order to provide a clear understanding of the most economically significant products traded by women and youth and provide deep market insights to support market development;
- Develop a step-by-step market access guide for these identified products;
- Launch a marketplace platform that will support market visibility and entry for women and youth traders in the targeted 10 products; does not in any way imply that other products are not significant, but provides a foundation on which other priorities can be built.
Commenting on the Nigeria’s strategy for the AfCFTA, Achimugu highlighted that product prioritization, capacity development on competitive production, providing trade information, forming business linkages, development of SEZs among others, have been identified as interventions necessary for implementing the AfCFTA in Nigeria.
Abiodun Folarewo, the coordinator for the consulting firm FABID, while giving some insight on the guide, noted that the market assets Guide and Manual boosts of new features, which include trade laws, exporting and importing guides so that the processes are made seamless.
Commenting on the e-commerce, Folarewo, hinted that executing partners of the project have improved the landing page so that business operators can simply click on the e-commerce platform, see the product that are made available with information on those products in terms of what is their origin, what is their HS code.
The platform also makes it easy for people to see those that are trading in those products. With the new features, and added frequently asked questions, it is easy for those who want to register as importers to understand the process as well as those who intend to register and trade on the AfCFTA.
According to Folarewo “Those are the new features that have added to the platform, and then we have also added link to different organizations that are connected with trading.
“If I am searching for the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) I can easily click, I will see SON, and I can go to the platform of SON right from the portal and see what are the processes of requirement for registration, those are the things that we have added to the portals.”
Folarewo announced that the Market Access Guide will be ready in the next few weeks, so all we need to do is just deposit it with the Nigeria AfCFTA Coordination Office who is the owner, who will then distribute accordingly.
Commenting on the website, Folarewo disclosed that it is not yet in the public domain until it is certified by the AfCFTA Coordination Office.
The AfCFTA Coordination Office, he said will also need to bring together the different stakeholders, like the custom, NAFDAC among others, because each of them has role to play in ensuring that the portal works very well, noting that if you say that you’re an exporter, then you need to be certified for you to be able to trade using the portal.
He pointed out that the NEPC would certify the business as an exporter and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC ) will register the organization and the product is duly registered.
Additionally, he said that the Nigeria Customs Service will say that you have the necessary document, so it cannot just be placed on public domain until all the necessary institutions have signed up on it.
