The United Kingdom is set to launch a new initiative to boost trade with Nigeria and other African countries, BusinessWorld Intelligence can now disclose. The move to boost trade by the British authorities would be facilitated through reduced bureaucracy, improved transport infrastructure and more efficient border crossings. This would be executed under the African free trade initiative (AFTi).
Under AFTi, Britain provides technical experts to unblock issues that continue to hold back economic growth across the region. This will include advising African countries on the design of border posts, infrastructure investment and analysis of major transport bottlenecks.
Already, three key areas which have been identified for AFTI to tackle include tariff barriers to trade such as the duties imposed by governments on imports from other countries. It will provide expert advice to national governments and regional bodies on how to bring down tariffs to create a more favourable trading environment and support in lobbying for changes in international trading agreements through the G8 and G20.
AFTi will also tackle “soft” barriers to trade like border post bureaucracy that makes it difficult for companies to transport goods across borders without spending large amounts of time on different sets of paperwork. This it will help governments to renew and coordinate rules and regulations to reduce bureaucracy and speed up border crossings. It will also develop monitoring systems to help truckers report unofficial barriers such as road block.
AFTi will equally tackle “hard” barriers to trade from poor infrastructure. Crumbling roads or poor rail links significantly increase journey times and reduce the number of potential trading partners because of access difficulties. AFTi will provide analysis of the major bottlenecks which are inhibiting trade and provide advice on which projects would be suited for Public Private Partnership investment.
Andrew Mitchell, British International Development Secretary, said  AFTi aims to “oil the wheels of trade” by making business quicker, easier and cheaper as part of a push to unlock Africa’s economic potential and enable people to pull themselves out of poverty. Mitchell further stated that AFTi clearly demonstrates the UK’s commitment to helping to oil the wheels of trade in Africa.
His words: “We are offering real, tangible help, from technical assistance on transport infrastructure projects to technical assistance with streamlining border post bureaucracy. Together these will enable traders to move goods more quickly”.
According to him, trade is vital to development, pointing out that trade.