By Felix Khanoba
The Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN) has organised a stakeholders’ capacity-building workshop on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement’s protocol on digital trade and its draft annexes.
The two-day event, held from October 16 to 17, 2024, in Abuja, aimed to enhance participants’ understanding of the protocol’s annexes.
Speaking at the workshop, the Director-General and Chief Trade Negotiator, Ambassador Yonov Fred Agah, urged stakeholders to leverage the opportunity to grasp the importance of the annexes.
According to a communiqué issued at the end of the workshop, Agah explained that the meeting was crucial to addressing Nigeria’s concerns, following a directive from the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment to deliberate on the country’s reservations.
In separate remarks, Mr. Yau Isa Garba, Deputy Director for E-Government and Digital Economy at the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); Dr. Tsotetsi Makong, Chief Technical Advisor on Capacity Building, Trade Policy, and Trade Negotiations at the AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra, Ghana; and Ambassador Agah emphasized the potential of digital trade to unlock economic opportunities.
They highlighted how it benefits firms of all sizes, consumers, and countries at varying levels of development.
At the end of the meeting, which was also to enhance the capacity of participants on digital trade under the AfCFTA Agreement, “the stakeholders agreed that the draft Annexes provided for, to address the concerns of Nigeria in the adopted Protocol on Digital Trade, specifically, where Nigeria had its reservations, is adequately captured, given the fact that negotiations of the draft Annexes is still ongoing.
“The stakeholders, having considered the Annexes as it relates to their jurisdiction, provided further inputs to strengthen the draft during the next AfCFTA Committee meeting on Digital Trade.”
The workshop drew participants from various ministries, departments, and agencies, along with representatives from the private sector, associations, and other digital organizations. Staff from the AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra, Ghana, facilitated the sessions.
