Nigeria has been urged to diversify its economy from predominant oil exports to trade exports for the country to take full advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Speaking to newsmen through a telephonic briefing that took place at the US Embassy in Lagos, the Assistant US Trade Representative for Africa, Constance Hamilton, said “Nigeria has not taken advantage of AGOA because it focuses too much on oil.”
AGOA is a United States’ trade initiative to boost African exports to the US. The Act, which was passed in 2000 and extended four years ago to 2025, abolished import duties for more than 1,800 products manufactured in eligible sub-Sahara African countries.
The telephonic briefing, which was set up to discuss the next AGOA Forum, which would be held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, from August 4 to 6, was also attended by the US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Tibor Nagy.
Answering question from a Nigerian journalist on why Nigerian companies have not been able to efficiently key into the business opportunities offered by AGOA, Hamilton opined that the bulk of Nigeria’s exports to the United States, under AGOA, still consists of oil.
“I think that Nigeria has not taken advantage of AGOA because they send us mainly oil, so in a certain extent, to answer your question, they actually are taking advantage of it—probably more than some of the other countries—but it is petroleum. And oil doesn’t really create the kind of jobs or other benefits from trade that I think that countries are looking for.
“So I think that Nigeria, and I think the new government is talking about trying to expand and go beyond just petroleum production and get into other things, but that really is a question for what Nigeria wants to see happen.
“You’re part of ECOWAS. ECOWAS is always talking about the liberalization of trade barriers, removing those barriers to trade and investment. I think that the fact that Nigeria has now joined the conversation with the Continental Free-Trade Area Agreement; it will also be submitting its commitments on liberalization, those are opportunities to open up the Nigerian market in many, many ways, not just for the United States and other partners outside of Africa, but also within the region.”
Speaking on what the US might likely do to ensure that the farmers at the grassroots actually benefit from the program, Hamilton said: “Again, you’re asking the United States to sort of go in and make this change within the Nigerian structure.
“I really think that the question for the Nigerian government is how do we take better advantage of the opportunities that AGOA presents? I mean, we have opened the door; we’ve got the trade hubs there to provide assistance to individual entrepreneurs, but it’s up to the government to create the conditions and to provide its businesspeople with what they need to access this market.
“We’ve been saying that over and over again. It’s up to the countries to figure out how to take advantage of this important preference program, and in the final years—in the last six years—let’s think about how to maximize the benefits.”
