Nigeria has restated its commitment to the aims and objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a free-trade zone encompassing most of the continent.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, made the statement at the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) held in Algiers, Algeria.
The gathering is a critical gateway to unlocking new opportunities across the continent.
On the sidelines of the fair, Edun held high-level meetings with the President and Chairman of Afreximbank, Professor Benedict Oramah, as well as the Chair of IATF 2025, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Their discussions focused on strengthening Nigeria’s trade integration agenda, expanding industrial capacity, and mobilising investments to support sustainable growth across the continent.
Day two of the fair featured the Trade Forum, Arise Industrialisation Day, Global Africa Day, and the CANE Auto Forum, each underscoring Africa’s increasing role in shaping global supply chains, deepening intra-African trade, and attracting transformative investments.
Speaking after his engagements, the minister reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to reforms that create a competitive and enabling environment for trade and enterprise.
He emphasised that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s policies are positioning Nigeria as a hub for value-added production and as a driving force for the continent’s economic integration.
AfCFTA was established in 2018 by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which has 43 parties and another 11 signatories, making it the largest free-trade area by number of member states, after the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the largest in population and geographic size, spanning 1.3 billion people across the world’s second largest continent.
