The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), on Tuesday, January 19, stated that it is waiting for clear directives from the National Action Committee (NAC) on implementable tariffs for all goods covered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on July 28, 2019, approved the establishment of the NAC, for the implementation of the AfCFTA’s agreement that he signed on behalf of the country at the 12th Extraordinary Session of the African Union Heads of State on July 7, 2019, in Niamey, the Republic of Niger.
The NCS, however, pointed out that the NAC is required to provide it with the list of duties and charges waived for liberalised goods under the AfCFTA; the list of the 90 per cent liberalised national trade offers; the list of 70 per cent non-liberalised exclusive goods at the regional level and the list of three per cent non-liberalised sensitive goods.
A statement by its Spokesman of the NCS, Mr. Joseph Attah, however, assured the public of its preparedness to fully deploy its services at the shortest notice.
The customs’ clarification came amidst concerns over the seeming tardiness and preparedness of Nigeria to hit the ground running following the launch of AfCFTA on January 1.
The customs also stated that it is looking forward to the appointment of a competent authority that would be responsible for issuing and authenticating certificates of origin and registering enterprises and products within the region.
Attah said: “Our desire is to imbue trust in the system while guaranteeing the economic safety and wellbeing of businesses within the country.”
“Sequel to the ratification of the AfCFTA by member nations, the NCS has found it pertinent to inform the public about steps which must be taken to enable its smooth and full implementation.”
“Instead of proceeding in a chaotic manner, the NCS as policy implementer understands the importance of spelling out the roles and responsibilities of all parties in this agreement and the conditions attendant on its implementation.”
“We wish to re-confirm our willingness and readiness to play our role as trade facilitators in this regard. However, we also wish to remind the public that our functions are highly automated and primarily systems driven. Hence the need to methodically harvest and integrate all data associated with the AfCFTA into our system for easy deployment, access and use by the trading public.”
The service further recommended that each member country should have a representative in the continental chamber of commerce to ensure transparency within the body thereby generating confidence in the system.
“This in our view should be complementary to the activities of the various chambers of commerce of each country in the region,” he added.
The statement assured that the NCS is firmly committed to successful implementation of the agreement as it is optimistic that an era of complete economic integration would lead to growth and prosperity for businesses within the continent
It said: “We want to assure the public of our preparedness to fully deploy our services at the shortest notice. Our desire is to imbue trust in the system while guaranteeing the economic safety and wellbeing of businesses within the country.”
