Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, permanent secretary Federal Ministry of Trade, Nigeria, delivering his paper at the Africa Today's Abuja EPA Summit.

This Summit provides another opportunity to discuss the salient issues in the west Africa - European Union EPA. Your views today, will further guide government in fine tuning its position and policy on the EPA.

Our meeting today is of utmost importance not only to Nigeria but to the sub-region in terms of the type of agreement that would ensure economic advancement and regional integration. Nothing can better guarantee high quality of life for our people than the development of a strong, united, resilient economy that is private sector driven and globally competitive. This is what regional integration holds for us. I therefore re-affirm Nigeria's belief in ECOWAS and our commitment to build a strong, united and economically integrated sub region. It is also important that we recognize that any Economic Partnership Agreement we endorse as a region, must make our economies better, stronger, more competitive and not weaker. In this respect, we expect the EPA to facilitate high level of investment that the region needs to grow its economies, create jobs for our teeming youths, enhance industrialization and regional development.

Let me also assure you of Nigeria's commitment to fully engage and positively contribute to the achievement of the desired objectives in the EPA negotiations, particularly the need to reach agreement on development oriented market access offer that fully takes into account the economic circumstances and development needs of the sub-region as well as its member states. While recognizing the strategic importance of the EU and EPA to the economy of the region, the twin issues of revenue losses and the impact of EPAs on the development of our industrial sector must be addressed. These two issues are critical to our region's development and will be impacted by EPA liberalisation. Nigeria has been witnessing serious challenges in terms of declining customs revenue as well as the structural transformation of our economies. We believe that these issues are critical not only to Nigeria, but also for other ECOWAS countries, given our demographic challenges and the need for us to create millions of jobs for our populations. We must therefore stand together to address these issues in the EPA or any other agreement by the region.

LEFT-RIGHT: Tanzania High Commissioner to Nigeria, Daniel Ole Njoolay; Jamaica High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mrs Ann Scott; Mr Ogechukwu Udeagha; and Mr Rasheed Olaoluwa , MD of the Bank of Industry .

ort of raw materials would not enhance our development or lead to the structural transformation of our economies. No nation develops neither by exporting raw materials nor by been import dependent but through developing manufacturing sector. Nigeria has since recognised that export diversification through value added and manufactured products are keys to unlocking our economic development. In this vein, the region needs to protect our nascent industries and address fundamental constraints to competitiveness before it can compete with advanced economies. The EPA should not hinder or frustrate our industrial development and structural transformation requirements and strategies. Nigeria became Africa's largest economy after it rebased its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $510 billion. The oil sector still dominates the Nigerian economy and our dependence on oil continues to place that feat on shaky grounds in view of recent developments in that sector that Nigeria has no control on. This is evident in the impact of low oil prices which dropped to about $56 per barrel in 2015, from a peak of $107.89 per barrel in June 2014. The naira has lost more 30 percent of its value, our stock exchange remains in troubled waters and the latest casualty is Nigeria's annual growth rate which was expected to grow at an average of 6.4 percent in 2015 prior to the oil crisis, but has now been revised to 4 percent by the World Bank, and it could get worse.

For oil exporting countries like Nigeria, the low prices will significantly affect our export earnings and may also affect our economic growth and social welfare. In addition to the fall in oil prices, movements among other commodity prices have been generally down by 10 to 50 per cent from their 10-year averages. For example, iron ore prices were down 50 percent and rubber prices down 37 percent from their 10-year averages according to UNCTAD. These price trends are of particular concern to commodity-dependent developing countries, which rely heavily on the income from their commodity exports. Resource-rich developing countries like Nigeria, should design and implement industrial and other development policies to promote value-addition; economic transformation and to reduce their dependence on producing and exporting unprocessed commodities. It is clear from the conclusions of most impact studies on Nigeria, that the EPAs will definitely pose a challenge to important sectors. The sectoral impacts confirm that the argument by Nigeria for a reconsideration of the classification of the sectors in the market access offer has merit. The analytical work with the Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGEM) offers some good basis to answer some of the questions from the results as they confirm negative impact. But many questions remain for decision makers regarding the level of liberalisation as some believe 60 per cent or thereabout are an optimal point.

The EU has sealed deals with African regional grouping which include the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and recently the East African Community (EAC) but CEMAC and the Pacific are yet to seal an agreement. Considering the relative weight of the concluded issues, particularly, as it bothers on the regional economic growth and development, Nigeria objected to the EPA in its current form notwithstanding the consensus reached. I will therefore implore you to discuss the salient issues in the EPA including the protection of domestic industries, promotion of exports, promotion of value addition, employment generation, promotion and protection of FDI, promotion of regional integration and local content issues. Our major consideration on the EPA is principally, its impact on four issues; the impact on regional industrialisation, revenue, investment and employment for our people. These are four primary issues Nigeria has considered in evaluating the EPA agreement reached by the ECOWAS chief negotiators, and these are the issues we implore our ECOWAS brothers to consider as well.

Let me reiterate what Nigeria had said in different forums, appreciating the ECOWAS Commission for their efforts in the EPA negotiations. The negotiation, I am told, was tough and stalemated for about 10 years, but the content of the agreement is yet to place us appropriately. We are not there yet.

*Abdulkadir A. Musa is permanent secretary at Nigeria's ministry of industry, trade and investment. Above are his submissions at the EU-ECOWAS Economic Partnership Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, 28-29 July 2015.

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