The Nigerian special committee, set up to examine the consequences of the country's joining the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), has just submitted its final report to the authorities, Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told Sputnik on Monday, adding that if the committee's report was favorable, Nigeria would ratify the deal "very soon."
ADDIS ABABA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2019) The Nigerian special committee, set up to examine the consequences of the country's joining the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), has just submitted its final report to the authorities, Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told Sputnik on Monday, adding that if the committee's report was favorable, Nigeria would ratify the deal "very soon."In spring 2018, the Nigerian authorities established a special committee tasked with reviewing the CFTA agreement and reporting back on it to the government.
"Yes, our president has set up a committee that has just submitted its report and we have not seen the recommendation, but if it's positive [and that it recommends] we should accede then it is likely that we should do so very soon," Onyeama said.
The Nigerian minister recalled that the agreement required ratification by 23 countries before entering into force, adding that 21 states have ratified it so far.
"We would like to accede [the CFTA] before the act comes into force, and it's almost there," Onyema specified.
The CFTA was signed in late March 2018 at a summit in the Rwandan city of Kigali. The accord seeks to progressively eliminate tariffs on intra-African trade and to remove other trade barriers.
