Interstate Journalists For Democracy and Development, IJDD,has hailed the United States Congress for extending the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act AGOA by two years
The extension which has received the assent of President Donald Trump intends to offer Africa extra two years to participate in the AGOA programme.
President of IJDD , Comrade Emmanuel Chukwu said the extension of AGOA by two years offers African countries the opportunity to expand the frontiers of trade with the United States.
Chukwu described the development as far encouraging in the expansion of trade opportunities for African countries in their bilateral economic relationships.with the United States.
The IJDD president said by assenting to the extension, president Trump has proved his resolve to encourage Africa to grow and called on African countries to optimize the opportunity for further growth of their economies.
Also he tasked African journalists to explain details of AGOA to the African business community to facilitate maximum participation in the trade between Africa and the United States.
AGOA was created by the administration of president Bill Clinton in 2000 to encourage the economic growth of Africa and to allow more participation by African entrepreneurs.
32 African countries are beneficiaries of AGOA, including Nigeria.
Unfortunately most of the benefitting countries have not been able to maximize the opportunities offered by AGOA in specific trade areas as a result of concentration on consumption, low interest in developing domestic capabilities to feed the demands of AGOA.
Poor investment culture, corruption and lack of encouragement of creativity for her citizens have been serious threats to a friendly trade policy like AGOA
