Maximizing the Prospects of the AfCFTA in Nigeria
By: Farouk Obisanya
Tags: Trade, Africa, Business, International Law

Globalization has led to the deepening of social, economic and cultural interactions among countries of the world through cross country flow of information, ideas, technologies, goods, services, capital, finance and people.

The growth of transnational cooperation has brought with it an attendant growth in transnational crime which can, simpliciter be defined as criminal activities that are coordinated or carried out across borders. Some of these crimes include drug trafficking, human trafficking, firearms trafficking, cybercrime or advance fee and internet fraud a.k.a. yahoo yahoo, money laundering e.t.c.

With the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area (“AfCFTA”) which aims to create one African market, it is expected that there would be an erasure of all restrictions to movement of goods and services amongst sovereign members as contemplated under the Treaty. These provisions however come at a price to sovereign members that will be exposed to the downsides and this article aims to put in perspective some of the various challenges that might come to the fore in the course of implementation.

In recent times, Nigeria has been bedevilled with alarming cases of nefarious activities including but not limited to terrorism, kidnapping, human trafficking e.t.c. The country is known to have borders with hundreds of footpaths and waterways allowing for the going back and forth of persons to neighbouring countries. These paths, which are mostly unknown to security agencies, are unmanned and unprotected. They have allowed for the continuous illegal trafficking of arms and smuggling of goods, many times substandard into Nigeria.

In 2013, the former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro disclosed that there are over 1,499 irregular (illegal) and 84 regular (legal) officially identified entry routes into Nigeria. Terrorists and smugglers take advantage of this leakage to smuggle arms into Nigeria. Therefore, it is safe to say that, for example, the Boko Haram sect connived in the past and still conniving with merchants involved in cross-border trade to help stuff their arms and weapons in goods that are transported through various means with little or no security checks.

On human trafficking, routes in Northern Africa seems to be the way, more often than not undocumented immigrants are smuggled to Europe. Aside from unforeseen natural disaster that may happen in the course of transit, there are records of some unfortunate Africans falling into the hands of traffickers. Some Nigerians have been found in this sad situation. In 2018, a group of Nigerians held captive in a detention centre in Libya were rescued after risking their lives to shoot a video, which detailed poor living conditions and pleas for help.

Undoubtedly, human trafficking violates human rights of victims. Very disturbing are the gory tales of children caught in the web of human traffickers.

With the concept of “free movement” designed by the AfCFTA, which is the norm in West Africa pursuant to the Protocol of Free Movement, Residence and Establishment of the Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States, there is a presumption that transnational criminal activities will increase. This poses a major challenge to Nigeria owning to the porosity of the country’s borders which has been worsened by the failure of governments to properly administer and manage these borders. This malaise not only challenge the state by circumventing its control and threatening its institutions, but this also puts the citizens at risk.

At the moment, the casualties arising from these crimes are not apparently reducing. It is believed that the country is not at war with these perpetrators who either have taken control of some areas or moving round the country.

Nigeria is known to be Africa’s largest economy. Therefore, there is no gainsaying that if AfCFTA’s prospects is fully maximized, it is good for Nigeria. The AfCFTA, amongst other objectives, seeks to create a single liberalised market for goods and services through successive rounds of negotiations and facilitated by movement of persons in order to deepen the economic integration of the African Continent. Hence, the Protocols on trades in goods and services.

On the other hand, AfCFTA will be detrimental to Nigeria if the country does not rise against injurious trading practices by third parties. The Protocol on Trade in Goods does not prevent a State Party from concluding or maintaining preferential trade arrangements with Third Parties. Third parties (most likely non-African countries) that want to benefit from the preferential treatment may end up conniving with another State Party for their products to meet the conditions of Rules of Origin and labelled “made in Africa”. Such products which will be exported from the other State Party shall enjoy treatment no less favourable than that accorded to like products of national origin, after the clearance by customs.

To benefit from this continental trade agreement, Nigeria must improve the ease of doing business against the excessiveness in regulation of enterprises, and tackle decays in infrastructures and institutions. It will help small, medium and large scale enterprises and consequently boost the country’s global competitiveness. Benefiting from the AfCFTA requires an effective economic management, political and judicial administration.

Also, it is important that the security at the country’s border are tightened and manned by incorruptible persons instead of corruptible conspirators passing as security men. This protects the country from transnational criminals and reduces dumping of smuggled goods to minimal, as a result protecting infant industries of strategic importance to the nation. Nigeria cannot win the battle against transnational crimes without investing in capacity building. State Parties of AfCFTA should collaborate towards effectively patrolling their borders. Also, there is need to entrench good governance in all facet of security management and administration of the country.

Thankfully, the AfCFTA Agreement provides for general and security exceptions in the Protocol on Trade in Goods and Protocol on Trade in Services respectively. However, the effectiveness must go beyond the papers. Despite the various legal instruments at the regional level to strengthen countries capacity to combat organized crimes within their borders, these instruments have been challenged and as a result not too effective. Thus, the Nigeria government and other African countries should sit up and go the extra-mile in putting adequate security measures in place.

Farouk Obisanya