AfCFTA Summit Stakeholders Push For Grassroots Trade Integration To Boost Nigeria’s Continental Competitiveness

Nigeria’s economic stakeholders on Monday pressed for deeper, community-driven integration into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), arguing that the country’s long-term trade gains will depend on how quickly local value chains are activated and connected to regional markets.

The call was made at the High-Level Plenary of the AfCFTA Public Sector, Private Sector, and Press (P3) Summit in Abuja, where participants stressed that Nigeria must evolve from policy commitments to real sector implementation.

Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, said Nigeria’s competitiveness under AfCFTA will rely on unlocking “tradeable value” in every community—from rural food-processing clusters to emerging agro-industrial hubs.

According to him, the agreement presents one of the most significant opportunities in decades for Nigeria to reshape its export structure, expand intra-African trade, and reduce dependence on extra-African markets.

“Every Nigerian community has something of value that can be traded. AfCFTA will not work if only corporates and elite players benefit. Local governments, wards, and cooperatives must identify what they produce and link it to continental markets,” Bagudu said.

He commended the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, for anchoring Nigeria’s trade strategy on ease of doing business and knowledge-sharing.

Bagudu argued that what Nigeria often underrates—effective information flow—is in fact central to competitiveness under AfCFTA, especially as SMEs navigate quality standards, logistics requirements, and export certification.

Economic analysts at the summit noted that Nigeria’s sluggish export diversification remains a key structural challenge.

While AfCFTA offers access to a market of over 1.3 billion people, they warned that Nigeria risks being a net importer within the free trade bloc if domestic productivity and subnational trade capacity are not rapidly strengthened.

Bagudu, underscored this point by citing examples from Kebbi State, where young entrepreneurs revived groundnut oil production for export to Tunisia, Benin Republic, and Ghana.

He also revealed that hundreds of trucks of onions leave the state daily for African markets, demonstrating how targeted support for local industries can translate into tangible regional trade flows. “This is not just a Kebbi story; it is a Nigerian story,” he said.

Trade specialists say that expanding such models across the federation could significantly boost Nigeria’s non-oil exports, increase FX inflows, and position states as frontline contributors to continental commerce. They emphasised that states must map their comparative advantages—such as cash crops, artisanal products, solid minerals, textiles, leather goods and processed foods—and align them with AfCFTA tariff incentives and logistics corridors.