ABUJA 鈥 Vice President Kashim Shettima has advised leaders in the African continent to harness potentials in the informal sector for small businesses to grow, stressing that if it fails in that direction, it will 鈥渒eep going round the same cycle of despair.鈥
Buttressing his claim, Shetti-ma said Africa鈥檚 future econom-ic success depends on its ability to integrate the informal sector into the formal intra-African trade framework, via the African Continental Free Trade Area (Af-CFTA).
According to him, the promise of a better future for Africa does not depend on the skyscrapers be-ing constructed in capitals of na-tions or the transactions in stock exchanges but lies in the reality that the 鈥減otential of the informal sector, which accounts for near-ly 90 percent鈥 of the continent鈥檚 workforce, must be harnessed.
Shettima made the observa-tion on Monday, when he declared open the 4th African Union Mi-cro, Small and Medium Enter-prises (MSMEs) forum in Abuja.
To achieve this, he demanded the integration of the informal economy into the fabric of for-mal intra-African trade, noting that this is the reason why small businesses have remained at the heart of policy formulation in Nigeria.
鈥淒istinguished delegates, there can be no African pros-perity without a strong MSME ecosystem. This forum is a conti-nental call to action. We owe it to ourselves, to our children, and to generations unborn, to integrate our informal economy into the framework of formal intra-Afri-can trade.
鈥淚 am confident that through our collaborative efforts, this fo-rum will mark a turning point. We hope to see our shared aspi-rations translated into concrete actions that empower our MS-MEs and propel Africa towards a brighter, more sustainable future,鈥 VP Shettima told dele-gates and other participants at the forum.
EU Commits 鈧1bn In Support Of AfCFTA Implementation
Meanwhile, the Head of Coop-eration at the Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Massimo De Luca, has said the European Union has committed about 鈧1.1 billion in support of the African Union鈥檚 implementation of Africa Con-tinental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
He lamented that access to finance remains a pressing chal-lenge for businesses in the region, especially MSMEs.
According to De Luca, if Af-rica fails to harness the potential in the informal sector for small businesses to grow, the continent would 鈥渒eep going round the same cycle of despair.鈥
鈥淥ur EU initiative in support of the African Union in the im-plementation of the AfCFTA hov-ers around 1.1 billion euros. The African Continental Free Trade Area represents an unprecedent-ed achievement towards realising Africa鈥檚 full economic potential and integration. The EU remains firmly committed to our partner-ship with Africa and ECOWAS for inclusive and sustainable in-dustrial development across the continent,鈥 he said.
Also the United Nations Devel-opment Programme (UNDP) Res-ident Representative in Nigeria, Ms. Elsie Attafuah, emphasised the need for enabling ecosystems to help MSMEs move from resil-ience to scalable impact.
She said, 鈥淎cross our conti-nent, MSMEs are the builders of local prosperity. They employ, they innovate, and they adapt, but they cannot thrive on resilience alone. They need ecosystems that work for them, platforms to com-mercialise innovation, access to working capital and markets both domestic and continental that rec-ognise their value.鈥
On his part, Permanent Rep-resentative of the African Union Sixth Region Global (AU6RG) to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambas-sador Afolabi Oke announced the appointment of Mr. Temitola Adekunle-Johnson, Special Ad-viser to the Nigerian President on Job Creation and MSMEs, as the Special Adviser to the AU 6th Region on Job Creation and MSME Development.
鈥淭he African Union Sixth Region Global is dedicated to representing and advocating for the African diaspora worldwide. As an extension of the African Union, we serve as the 鈥楽ixth Re-gion,鈥 uniting people of African descent living outside the African continent and Friends of Africa,鈥 Oke said.