AfCFTA AND NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper interrogates the developmental implications of the African ContinentalFree Trade Area (AfCFTA) for Nigeria, with particular attention to the often-overlooked WestAfrican borderlands. As the continent’s most populous country and an important regional actor,Nigeria occupies a central role in shaping AfCFTA’s outcomes. The agreement, while widelyframed as a pan-African milestone for economic transformation, presents a complex terrain ofopportunity and constraint for Nigeria. On one hand, it holds the promise of expanded intra-Africantrade, export diversification, industrial revitalization, and enhanced regional cooperation. Nigeria’sstrategic sectors, including agro-processing, textiles, and digital services, could benefit from accessto broader markets, increased investment, and job creation. On the other hand, this paper contendsthat realising these benefits remains conditional upon addressing a range of domestic and sub-regional challenges. These include infrastructural deficits, border insecurity, institutionalincoherence, weak productive capacity, and entrenched corruption. The analysis foregrounds theparadoxes of trade liberalisation in Nigeria’s fragile frontier regions, where informal economies,porous borders, and overlapping regulatory regimes persist. By situating borderlands as both spacesof vulnerability and sites of economic potential, the paper highlights how exclusionary governancepractices, particularly the marginalisation of women-led enterprises and small-scale traders,threaten inclusive participation in AfCFTA. Through a critical political economy lens, the studyargues for a development-oriented trade governance model that foregrounds institutional reform,local capacity-building, and multi-level coordination. Special emphasis is placed on integratinginformal actors and SMEs into formal value chains, strengthening sub-national engagement, andharmonising policy across borders. The paper contributes to ongoing debates on regionalintegration, state capacity, and the reimagining of Africa’s border economies as engines oftransformative growth.