Encouraging cross-border trade yields huge benefits, says Adeniyi

Adewale Adeniyi, the comptroller-general (CG) of customs, says encouraging cross-border trade within Africa offers significant economic benefits.

Adeniyi spoke on Friday while briefing journalists at the State House in Abuja.

He said that in any regional economic grouping, member countries generally agree to suspend customs duties to some extent on goods traded among themselves.

The customs CG added that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is building on the existing blocs to achieve continental free trade.

According to the CG, while revenue collected by customs is used to fund social services and infrastructure — including health and education — facilitating trade, particularly across borders, delivers greater long-term economic benefits.

“If you also encourage the citizens to trade, especially across the borders, the benefits that come from trade is quite huge,” Adeniyi said.

“Trade has been known over the years to be the source of economic prosperity. When you talk about some of the richest people in Africa in our society, most of them made their fortunes from trade. So, it is a trade-off.

“We either say we collect a lot of money and we do not allow people to trade, or we maintain some kind of healthy balance.”

‘AFRICAN COUNTRIES SHOULD TRADE MORE WITHIN THEMSELVES’

The customs boss stressed that the free trade area is not designed to isolate Africa from global markets.

“The market is not only in Africa. So, in all of this, ACFCTA is not asking us to constitute ourselves into an autarchy. It is not saying that we should not trade with the rest of the world,” he said.

“What the free trade area in Africa is saying is that we should have more of African countries trading within themselves.”

Adeniyi noted that exporting Nigerian goods to African destinations such as Kenya offers lower logistics costs and eliminates currency conversion constraints.

“These are all the lofty ideas behind the fact that we needed to trade within ourselves,” the CG added.

He also said the suspension of customs duties is meant to liberalise the African market and ensure goods produced on the continent can access markets across Africa.

Citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Adeniyi said African countries were Nigeria’s biggest export destination in 2023 and 2024.

The comptroller-general added that President Bola Tinubu has directed agencies to leverage the trend by removing all trade barriers — especially non-tariff obstacles — so that more Nigerians, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), can benefit from wider access to African markets.