BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
THE Federal Government is soliciting the support of the World Trade Organization in its transition from fossil oil to gas dependent economy.
It also requested the WTO to assist the country in facilitating trade under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to enhance the ease of doing business and boost agricultural output, particularly in the area of value addition.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, tabled the Federal Government’s requests on Monday in Abuja to the Director-General of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is in the country on a four-day official visit.
She said, “We in Nigeria want to advocate for transition energy because it is true now that the issue of climate change is upon us. Our gas emissions in Nigeria are very minimal compared to global emissions. We have these assets and we have not tapped into them to aid our development.
“We want you to support us and we have it in our agenda in COP 26 to campaign for gas to be classified as transition energy even if it’s for a limited period of 20 years.
“We also want the WTO to support us in looking at how Nigeria can leverage on bio-economic resources. It’s not new we have been too depended on fossils fuel and crude contributes significantly to the extent that whichever way the market swings to, that’s the situation we will find ourselves and it is unhealthy.”
“Also, help us facilitate trade under AfCFTA to enhance the ease of doing business. We need to strengthen manufacturing, and also get women involved and support Nigeria in driving economic inclusive growth by paying special attention to the contributions of women,” she added.
Responding, Okonjo-Iweala said her visit to Nigeria was not by accident, saying it was purposely planned to “say thank you to Mr. President, to the Chief of Staff for the huge support.
“I have to start from home, to see how WTO can support Nigeria and improve her ability to trade,” she noted.
She expressed regret that Nigeria’s share of world trade was 0.33 per cent, a figure she said was very low.
Okonjo-Iweala added that even at the continental level, the share of Nigeria’s trade, which was currently 19 per cent, was too small compared to what the country could achieve.
She explained that the Federal Government must step up action on its economy, stating that trade could be instrumental if Nigeria could add more value to its products and improve its infrastructure to deliver trade.
The DG said, “Nigeria is very active in agriculture bearing in mind that we have a diversified economy in Nigeria, where agriculture is extremely important. Even though we don’t have a diversified source of revenue, but we have a diversified economy.
“Trade negotiations on agricultural issues are very important for us and we are very active there. We are also active in the joint statement initiatives. Nigeria is a leader on issues of e-commerce, services domestic regulations, investment facilitation, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and women in trade.
“Nigeria is active on all these issues because they are very important for our economy and that is the main thing I want to say today and the reason why we are here.
“Nigeria’s share in world trade is 0.33 per cent, this is a small fraction of what we could do. Our share in Africa trade is 19 per cent which is below our share of the Africa’s Gross Domestic Product.
“This means we must step up our action on the economy; we must do better and harder in several ways, the reason we are concerned about that is because of our youth, the majority of our population are young people who are waiting for jobs and we are here for them.
“Trade can be instrumental if we can add more value to our products, trade can be instrumental if we try to improve on our infrastructure to deliver trade.”
“Nigeria needs to focus on adding value on transitioning, we are an oil and gas based economy and that has sustained us and still will. But the world is moving away from fossil fuel.”
The WTO DG added that the country could do well in the area of agriculture as it had a lot of potentials in various segments of the agricultural sector.
She added, “Trade negotiations on agricultural issues are very important to us and we are very active there.
“Nigeria is a leader on issues of e-commerce, services domestic regulations, investment facilitation, micro small and medium enterprises and women in trade.”
