States Urged To Partner African Countries To Boost Investment

State governments in Nigeria have been urged to enter into trade and investment partnerships with African nations to boost intra-African trade and improve the welfare and prosperity of indigenes of their states.

The President of the Nigeria-Namibia Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Ben Gbade Ojo, made the call at the Namibia-Delta State Trade and Investment Summit held in Warri, Delta State recently. Mr. Ojo said state governments in Nigeria can boost their economies and create more employment opportunities for their people by promoting and engaging in trade and investment relations with African countries.

According to Mr. Ojo, “Trade is widely accepted as an important engine of economic growth and development. There are many regions and countries of the world that have been able to lift their people from poverty to prosperity through trade. In Africa, however, trade has not served as a potent instrument for the achievement of rapid and sustainable economic growth and development.”

He regretted that, “Intra-African trade (trade among African nations) stands at around 13% compared to approximately 60%, 40 %, 30% intra-regional trade that has been achieved by Europe, North America and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) respectively. Even if allowance is made for Africa’s unrecorded informal cross-border trade, the total level of intra-African trade is not likely to be more than 20%, which is still lower than that of other major regions of the world.”

According to Ojo, “That African countries do not trade much with each other has meant that they have been unable to fully harness the synergies and complementarities of their economies and take full advantage of the economies of scale and other benefits (such as income and employment generation) that greater market integration would have provided. There are cases where products and services could have been sourced competitively from other African countries but were procured from outside the continent.”

He said, “Enhancing intra-African trade presents a multitude of benefits. It fosters the evolution of regional value chains and catalyzes productivity and innovation” adding that intra-African trade also enhances economies of scale which means that “as the scale of output goes up, average costs of production decline—at least up to a point.”

He congratulated the Delta State Government on the visionary initiative and called on all other states to join Delta State in promoting international trade and investments for the improved welfare and prosperity of their people and states.

The well-attended summit was graced by His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse III, the Olu of Warri and His Excellency, Humphrey Geiseb, High Commissioner of Namibia to Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. The Olu of Warri also hosted Mr. Ojo, the Namibian High Commissioner, and other summit dignitaries at his palace.