The national centre of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) stated on Thursday that Nigeria would formally start exporting locally manufactured goods to South Africa, Rwanda, Cameroon, and Kenya starting next month as part of the AfCFTA’s Guided Trade Initiative.

In April, Nigerian enterprises will begin the official and formal export of commodities to African states under the AfCFTA treaty, although some businesses now export products to these countries informally.

With 54 of the 55 members of the African Union establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, it is the largest free trade area in the world in terms of the number of participating nations.

Olusegun Awolowo, the Executive Secretary of the National Action Committee on AfCFTA, informed journalists on the sidelines of the Abuja Stakeholders Workshop on the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol on Thursday that although trading under the main AfCFTA had not yet begun, the programme secretariat had introduced the Guided Trade Initiative.

He said, “We haven’t started trading in AfCFTA, we are duly going through the protocols. But recently the AfCFTA secretariat itself launched what they call the Guided Trade Initiative to get some countries to start trading outside their regional blocks.

“We’ve signed onto it and I think that by the end of April we are taking a few companies, big, medium and small enterprises to actually launch trading in Africa. All we are doing now is that we are going through and signing all the protocols, as well as finding a way on how to implement them.

“So we are now at the stage of implementation. Therefore, trading hasn’t really commenced under AfCFTA. It is not an overnight thing, you have to go through all the protocols, sign them and agree.

“However, we are hoping that we are able to start trading under the GTI, not on the main AfCFTA itself, by the end of April. So it will be on record that Nigeria has now started exporting officially and formally, because, of course, informal trade is going on anyway.”

When asked to list some of the nations to which Nigeria would formally begin exporting goods as part of the GTI scheme, Awolowo said, “We are going to South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, and Rwanda.” Given the length of time it takes to complete trade agreements, the AfCFTA brought forth the Guided Trade Initiative.

The IMF estimates that trade integration may result in a 15% rise in the median merchandise trade flow with the rest of the world and a 53% increase between African nations.

Trade reforms have the potential to alleviate extreme poverty for an extra 30–50 million individuals throughout the continent.

A modernised social safety net and a macroeconomic and business climate that support growth driven by the private sector are essential for optimising the benefits of trade integration.