According to GhanaWeb, Ghana’s investment rules can protect some indigenous businesses against some foreign companies in the short term, and to the detriment of consumers, but this is dwarfed by the economic loss it will cause in the medium to long term. It said the protected local industries and businesses produced inferior goods and were unable to compete on price as they had little incentive to increase productivity, and gave few options to the consumers.

It also suggests that business and trade restrictions make Ghanaian consumers suffer higher prices and undermine sustainable, widespread economic growth. It further indicates that Ghana must evaluate the implications of investment limit since Ghana itself is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

On the contrary, earlier this month, Hanna S. Tetteh, Ghana Minister of Trade and Industry had said that “Now as far as businesses between Ghana and Nigeria are concerned, again from our point of view, we do not have a problem. The issue has been a misrepresentation of the legal position as it stands with regards to business.” She further added that some regulations were in place to protect jobs and petty businesses of the locals.

Despite the obstacles, trade between Nigeria and Ghana in recent years has quadrupled to $525mn in 2008 – but mainly consists of oil. Nigeria earned $89mn in non-oil exports to Ghana (out of $500mn overall exports), while Ghana’s exports to Nigeria reached $25mn. Nonetheless, Nigerians have investments of nearly $6bn in Ghana, boosting jobs, creating wealth and bolstering taxable revenue. According to the Africa Economic Outlook report 2010, only 10 percent of the continent’s total exports are traded within Africa: trade barriers between African nations are the highest in the world.

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The Secretary to the Nigerian Government of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale is leading a delegation comprising of top government officials and private company heads to the US to sign the agreement as well as to interact with their counterparts to explore areas of interest and profit. While speaking to THISDAY, the Nigerian Ambassador to the US, Professor Adebowale Adefuye said Yayale would sign the accord on behalf of Nigeria and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would do the same for the US.

Nigeria envisages this pact as an important milestone in trade ties with the US especially after the country failed to take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) enacted in 2000, which enabled the country to penetrate the US market. Similarly, through the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) which is in effect again from 2000, both countries have not been able to achieve the desired results despite an uptick in some of the trade areas. However, in the wake of the restoration of democracy in 1999, the Nigeria-US relations have shown tremendous improvements in diplomatic co-operation and regional peacekeeping efforts.

According to Adefuye, the pact will cover several spheres including trade and energy, Niger Delta; electoral reforms, and peace and security. In addition, the first US-Nigeria Business Forum will be held between April 12 and 20 in three US states – Georgia, Texas and Illinois.

The Forum is expected to discuss the trade prospects for both countries in the fields of tourism & hospitality, mining, telecommunications, aviation & transport, and the SMEs development. Other areas such as banking, infrastructure, construction, agriculture, health, oil & gas, maritime, environment and insurance are also expected to be featured in the Forum.

Nigeria is the largest trading partner of the US in sub-Saharan Africa. About one million Nigerian nationals and Nigerian-Americans are believed to live, work and study in the US as against around 25,000 US citizens who live and work in Nigeria.

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Though Nigeria has vast areas of fruit farms, its exports have never been able to make a global foot print in fruit trade. This was largely due to the absence of optimum agricultural eco-system in the country including education to farmers, good roads, and refrigerated vehicles for transporting the perishable goods to main markets and so on.

The Food and Agriculture Organization data show that in 2007, Nigeria produced about 73,000 tons of mangoes, which is about 2.6 percent of the world production. Besides Mangoes, the country produces papayas, pineapples, guavas, bananas, oranges, grapes and other native fruits. Nigeria is the second largest exporter of papaya in the world after Brazil despite not having proper modern facilities.

Most of the produce never left the farmlands because farmers feared that fruits would rot on the way to the markets as bad roads and transportation facilities could not avoid such an eventuality. Many traders feel that the unexpected demand and poor reach of the fruits to the main markets have caused prices to sky-rocket during the Ramadan month.

Next, a leading source for Nigerian news, found that most of the fruits were wasted due to lack of agricultural infrastructure in the country. It said owing to Ramadan demand a small pineapple which was sold for about 33 cents last month now sells for between 55 and 75 cents.

Experts felt that if a proper agricultural infrastructure is in place, Nigeria could become one of the important fruit sourcing zones in the world. With right preservation techniques and processing facilities, the fruits could become the largest revenue earner of the country, they added.

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