The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has called on authorities across the continent to take the right policy actions to actualise the limitless opportunities for the industrialisation of Africa offered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). He stated this in a message delivered on Thursday at a ‘Roundtable on Industrialisation in Africa’ in which he listed such actions to include the protection of local industries and improvement of value chains.
The roundtable themed “Positioning African Industries for Economic Transformation and Continental Free Trade” was organised by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to celebrate its Golden Jubilee. “For certain, the AfCFTA is indispensable if industrial development is to take off in Africa because it offers wider markets and economies of scale which are essential for manufacturing to be competitive,” the Vice President was quoted as saying by his media aide, Laolu Akande.
“We must take policy actions to create an environment in which businesses can thrive. To start with, we must adopt the right type of macroeconomic and industrial policies. “It is important for African governments to provide a stable macroeconomic environment which avoids and smoothens out volatility in prices, sharp deteriorations in the current account and budget deficits and, of course, rapid accumulation in debt burdens.”
On actions that will boost manufacturing, Professor Osinbajo believes policies like tariffs, quotas, subsidies, and non-tariff barriers, that protect infant industries so that they can create jobs and enable learning, are vital.
