Nigeria has reduced the processing time for the AfCFTA Certificate of Origin from more than five days to 24 hours, following the digitalisation of its registration, verification and certification processes.
Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, announced the development at the third-quarter meeting of the AfCFTA Central Coordination Committee in Abuja.
The development represents a practical step in translating the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement from continental commitments into procedures that businesses can use to trade across African markets.
Under the AfCFTA, the Certificate of Origin is critical to preferential trade. While the Agreement provides the basis for preferential treatment, exporters need the certificate to demonstrate that their products meet the applicable Rules of Origin and to claim the relevant preference. The speed with which businesses can obtain the document can therefore have direct implications for their ability to fulfil commercial orders.
For exporters operating within tight delivery schedules, reducing the processing period from more than five days to just one day could help narrow the gap between administrative procedures and commercial realities.
Dr Oduwole illustrated the importance of this with the example of a Nigerian fashion business that secured an order for 6,000 T-shirts during a trade mission to Botswana. Such an order demonstrates why the efficiency of trade procedures matters: businesses working to meet delivery deadlines need administrative processes to move at a pace that supports rather than delays commercial transactions.
The Nigerian experience also highlights the role of digitalisation in the AfCFTA implementation process. By moving registration, verification and certification into a digital process, the country has shortened the time required for exporters to obtain a key document for preferential trade.
From Agreement to Implementation
The development illustrates a broader shift in the AfCFTA story, from establishing continental rules to ensuring that those rules translate into practical trading opportunities.
For businesses, implementation is ultimately experienced through the systems and procedures they encounter when attempting to move products from one African market to another. Rules of Origin, Certificates of Origin and the administrative processes surrounding them therefore have direct commercial significance.
Nigeria’s reduction in processing time provides a concrete example of a State Party taking provisions under the AfCFTA and translating them into procedures that exporters can use. As captured in the AfCFTA Secretariat’s digital media pack, this is what implementation looks like: turning the provisions of the Agreement into practical processes for businesses.
For the wider AfCFTA implementation agenda, the experience underscores a central issue: continental trade commitments acquire their greatest meaning when businesses can use them efficiently to access markets, fulfil orders and trade across borders.
