Will the AfCFTA be worth it for Nigeria?

Earlier this week, Nigeria ratified its membership of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Officially, it’s the “AfCFTA”, but it’s a bit of a tongue twister—defeating the purpose of using acronyms in conversations.  

So, many people just stick with saying ACFTA, and because I mention it 20 times in this piece, I will save my breath and do the same. 

Anyway, ratifying a trade agreement is providing formal consent for the deal to go ahead. Without this step, Nigeria will not be able to implement the necessary laws in the agreement. 

So we’ve finally crossed the finish line. It now looks like the largest free trade area in the world will kick off on the 1st of January, and Nigeria will be a part of it. 

However, this news has not received much attention. I recently talked about how Nigeria has a funny relationship with trade. And by “funny”, I