PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI SIGNS AFRICAN FREE TRADE AREA AGREEMENT

President MUHAMMAD BUHARI has signed the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement, after months of long wait.

The signing took place at the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union on AfCFTA and the First Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities in Niamey, Niger Republic.

BUHARI accepted to sign the agreement after a presidential panel he set up to look into the AfCFTA advised that Nigeria would benefit economically from the envisaged trade relations with other African countries.

AU leaders hope the agreement, which comes after 17 years of tough negotiations, will create the world’s largest free trade area, estimating a 60-percent boost in trade between the continent’s 1.2 billion people by 2022.

Nigeria has become the 53rd county in Africa to sign the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement agreement.