The Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole has said President Bola Tinubu’s comprehensive economic reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda was laying the foundation for capital to flow and trade to thrive in the country.
The Minister spoke at a colloquium in honour of women’s role in industry, trade and investment with the theme “Position Nigeria to lead intra-African trade”.
She said the government was working with some global organisations to expand market access, attract investment, and connect Nigerian businesses including women-led enterprises to global markets, capital, and value chains.
She disclosed that in 2025, the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment strengthened investment facilitation and investor aftercare, gazetted Nigeria’s AfCFTA tariff schedule, launched a new air cargo export corridor, and reinforced Nigeria’s leadership in the digital and creative economies through ratification of the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol.
Oduwole said the priority of the government is clear and that is “connecting global and regional demand with Nigeria’s supply capacity and the capital required to scale it.
The Minister of State, Trade and Investment, Senator John Enoh said the African Continental Free Trade Area is no longer a conceptual aspiration, but is operational architecture with a $3.4 trillion market of 1.4 billion people, representing the largest free trade area in the world by number of participating countries.
He however said that production, rather than markets do not create prosperity and that Trade agreements do not industrialise nations, competitive enterprises do, adding that Nigeria’s ambition under AfCFTA is not to be a passive consumer market, but to become a production hub; manufacturing, processing, innovating and exporting at scale.
Minister for Women Affairs, Iman Suleiman Ibrahim said the African Continental Free Trade Area is no longer a promise, but an architecture under construction.
“It is a market of 1.4 billion people, a combined GDP of over three trillion US dollars, and an intra-African trade potential that economist’s project could reach 35 percent of total African trade by 2040, up from barely 16 percent today”.
Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack commended the Minister of Trade and Investment for providing the strategic platform that recognised the transformative contributions of women to economic development and regional integration, adding that across Africa.
According to her, the participation of women in national development has become indispensable to the realisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area and to Nigeria’s ambition of strengthening its leadership within Africa’s economic landscape.
Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Amb Nura Abba Rimi said the gathering has reaffirmed a fundamental truth that the economic transformation envisioned under the African Continental Free Trade Area will not be fully realised without the active participation, empowerment, and leadership of women across the nation’s productive sectors.
