The Nigerian government is gearing to establish a free trade zone with three African countries – Kenya, South Africa and Egypt.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.
Onyeama’s media briefing was the outcome of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, TICAD.
He said the four countries had already worked out modalities for establishing the zone.
Mr Onyeama clarified that the zone was different from the planned free trade zone of the Africa Union.
The Minister said President Muhammadu Buhari has put in place initiatives that would improve Nigeria’s ranking of World Bank Ease of Doing Business.
[President Buhari attended the TICAD event in Kenya.]
Currently, Nigeria is ranked one hundred and sixty nine of the one hundred and eighty nine countries on the Ease of Doing Business.
According to him, an Inter-Ministerial Committee has been set up under the Chairmanship of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to put in place mechanism for the achievement of the project.
Mr. Onyeama gave an insight to of those issues that would be considered by the committee.
The Minister said the Japanese government also expressed their support to the country’s push for reforms at the United Nations.
The TICAD was being held every five years since its inception in 1993 until the conference in 2003 decided that it should be convened every three years.
The TICAD VI held in August in Nairobi, Kenya, was the first to be held in Africa.
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