Nigeria’s socioeconomic indices show that it urgently requires all the economic leverage it can access. Unemployment beats statistical expectations; a poverty rate of 40% places the country as a significant propagator of poverty in Africa.
Trade facilitation, by informed estimates, holds enormous potential for Nigeria. The United States established diplomatic relations with Nigeria in 1960, following Nigeria’s independence from the United Kingdom.
Following the 1999 inauguration of a civilian president, the U.S.-Nigerian relationship improved, as did cooperation on foreign policy goals.
Marisa Lago, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, U.S. Department of Commerce, recently visited South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Egypt, and Nigeria. In an online briefing with David Greene, Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Mission to Nigeria, Lago stated that the vision for deepening engagement with Africa will be focused on delivering tangible results across all dimensions of the United State’s bilateral relationship, as well as its partnerships with subnational and pan-African institutions.
“At the U.S. Department of Commerce, we view these engagements and this specific GDEI Trade Mission as important steps in continuing to deliver on the commitments that we made at last December’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and Business Forum. In particular, this trade mission has brought over 20 U.S. companies and organizations, mostly owned by members of the African diaspora in the United States. These companies are active in a wide range of sectors, starting with the information and communications technology sector, cybersecurity, electric vehicles, energy, trade facilitation, and consumer goods.
While these U.S. companies have been on this trade mission in Africa, the Commerce Department has arranged for them a robust series of tailored match-making opportunities with potential business owners – with potential business partners in these three countries. We have also introduced them to the decision-makers in South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria.
“This trade mission serves as an example of how intentionally we’re working to deepen and sustain connections between U.S. and African companies. We see trade missions like these as a foundational means of business-to-business relationship building as well as an important mechanism to foster ties that lead to concrete trade and investment deals.”
Given the benefits that can accrue to Nigeria if foreign trade relations are made on favourable terms, foreign policy decision-makers must now look to facilitate the infrastructure necessary for favourable trade terms.
While a majority of President Tinubu’s foreign policy concerns have been geared towards strengthening democracy across West Africa, the present administration must now look towards more pressing economic concerns. After all, “‘he who controls trade, controls the world economy”.
Every country’s economic and political strength is, to a considerable extent, determined by its place in world trade. Trading patterns typically reflect political and economic strength. Trade facilitation, or planning and implementing laws and practices that make trading operations, especially trade across borders, easier, is necessary to achieve noble economic and political goals. This allows for the most effective and efficient commerce possible.
According to educated estimations, trade facilitation has huge potential for Nigeria. Getting it right will enable the $100 billion in anticipated revenue from 22 significant non-oil products over the next 10 years, help create thousands of jobs, and help utilize the $3.4 trillion in the potential single market that comes with the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
