Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Sector Matters, Francis Anatogu has stated the Federal Government’s plans to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) to grow Nigeria’s intra-Africa export trade volume to $50billion by 2035.
Speaking at an event in Lagos yesterday, Anatogu, who is also the Secretary, National Action Committee on AfCFTA, observed that the government will take advantage of the trade agreement to prepare for a post-oil revenue.
To achieve this, he said a number of strategic programmes were already underway.
These included a N50 billion Naira Export Expansion Facility Programme (EEFP), implemented by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI )and the 2.3 trillion National Economic Sustainability Plan for export- driven growth.
Others are the N1 billion Nigeria-Africa Trade Investment Programme (NATIPP) launched by Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), African Export Import Bank (AFREXIM) and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and the Zero Oil Plan (ZOP), to promote non-oil exports, create at least 500,000 additional jobs and generate a minimum of $150billion.
He added that the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) put in place by the government will help to build Nigeria’s competitive advantage in key priority sectors, through accelerated expansion of the manufacturing sector and broadening of industry scope.
Under the 2021 budget, Anatogu said over N11.61 billion has been set aside for rehabilitation of various railway tracks including, N8.86 billion for Nigeria Railway modernisation project Lagos-Ibadan – Kano, N1.01 billion for the development of National Transport Databank, N6.05 billion for the construction of outreach centres, including supply of equipment.
