European Union Commission (EUC) at the weekend proposed a €40 billion package designed to create at least 10 million jobs in African countries signatory to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
As things are now, Nigeria might not benefit from the EU offer due to President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the agreement aimed at accelerating intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market.
This was disclosed in a statement from the Communication Office of the Economic Commission on Africa (ECA) issued on Friday after a two-day forum the ECA organised on the AfCFTA with focus on the pharmaceutical industry.
The statement quoted the EU Ambassador to the African Union, Amb. Ranieri Sabatucci at the two-day forum where he proposed a €40 billion package to attract investments that will create at least 10 million jobs in African countries
Sabatucci said, “As was highlighted in his state of the union speech in September 2018 referring to the AfCFTA, the EU Commission President, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker expressed the will that the long term perspective is to create a comprehensive continent to continent free trade agreement between EU and Africa.”
“To prepare for this, economic partnership agreements, free trade agreements, including the deep and comprehensive free trade areas and others in the countries, north of Africa and other trade issues with the EU should be exploited to the greatest extent as building blocks to the benefit of the AfCFTA.
“The ambition is to further increase African exports and to attract investment, including to manufacturing and processing sectors and to encourage the creation of regional value chains through flexible rules of origin.
“To support this, a massive support of €40 billion of grants under the new Africa-European Alliance for Jobs and Growth is proposed as from 2021 to 2027 to, among others, attract investments that would create 10 million jobs in Africa,” he said. (Logo: Uclga)