 Commit me to speak very briefly on the value of a rigorous domestic process of stakeholder engagement for trade agreements. It's well over seven months since the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, the AFCTA was signed in Kigali, Rwanda on the 21st of March 2018. The AFCTA is probably the most significant plan African Trade Agreement in this generation and its impact on commerce and on practically everything else will also arguably be the most profound of any agreement that we have yet signed on this continent. Since its establishment, the pace of outreach to improve understanding to build capacity and to sharpen expertise has accelerated. The trade negotiators have essentially done their job, although we now enter the more crucial business of negotiating the details of tariff offers and what is safeguarding the good schedules and the specifics of the commitments for the trade and services schedules. In the meantime, it is time for policymakers and stakeholders with the support of regional institutions across the continent to do their own job. The objective now is to improve understanding of the stakes in play, the opportunities in the agreement and to identify some of the concerns and challenges that stakeholders may have and how to address these. So my principle of focus is to just very quickly share with you the stage of the ongoing internal processes in Nigeria and the results of the outreach, sensitization and consultations with stakeholders. Of course, everybody has been asking so what's Nigeria doing, where's Nigeria at and all of that. So I think it just might be helpful to fill in some of the gaps. The AFCTA is now at the stage in many senses for us in the plural democracy like Nigeria of a rigorous domestic consultative process and we are doing so. We are possibly the largest market in Africa today and the most likely to benefit the most or to lose the most from the implementation of the agreement. We've also learned in some cases the hard way with past national agreements and also with how to bear in mind the ongoing changes, particularly on trade in the global economy. Consequently, the purpose of Nigeria's domestic process of consultations has been to engage stakeholders systematically and constructively. We've sought to understand their concerns and at the same time to build capacity, broaden the basis of consensus and in partnership identify elements for a plan of engagement. So what have we done, what have we learned and what is the current state of play and what are the next steps? In March this year, we initiated a nationwide sector-wide stakeholder sensitization. In this exercise, the government team led by the Honorable Minister, Enola Ma, engaged with one decision-making economic governance and advisory institutions such as the Federal Exemptive Council, the Economic Management Team, that's the Nigerian Economic Management Team. The Nigerian Governors Forum as you know were a country with a federal government and 36 sub-nationals, 36 states and each of course has a government. So we consulted also extensively with the Governors Forum. The Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council. Also we consulted with the National AFC-FTA Stakeholders Forum. The industry and sectoral groups, chambers of commerce, micro-small and medium enterprises and the Nigerian Stop Exche. Of course we consulted with academia, team tanks, policy institutes, civil society and stakeholders in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, including visits to border communities with historic trade corridors into Central, Northern and Eastern Africa. The last major grouping was done just a few days ago at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on the 31st of October. Essentially we've touched all major bases. So in this eight month long exercise, approximately 34 groups and associations were sensitized and consulted 3,500 actual persons were engaged directly. Five communiques were adopted and signed in Nigeria's five geopolitical zones. With a factual summary issued in Lagos, codifying the substance of those consultations, especially for the South West geopolitical zone, 12 private sector groups submitted inputs autonomously, conveying their group positions on the agreement in response to the nationwide call for inputs. The process has been and remains serious, diligent and transparent and the subject of scrutiny and evaluation by all of the various groups, including of course our very vibrant media. I should also say that although the key bases have been consulted, this process of engagement has acquired a constructive and healthy momentum of its own. I believe that this is desirable. To consider that for such a signal development on the continent, like the agreement, the process must and should be subject to democratic engagement to avoid any blowbacks. And there are lessons already on this call from contemporary global economy. Expectably the sensitization made evident diverse views and positions. While most stakeholders clearly support the agreement, there are of course concerns, especially about the impact of what the agreement may have on local industry. Some take the view that caution should be exercised with thorough preparedness for any process of trade opening and integration. Of course the stakeholders who are full in support point to the market opportunities for growth for Nigerian exporters of goods and services and for industrialization through the economies of scale in a single market. They identified the mechanisms for resolving trade disputes and the various platforms for trade cooperation. And there were many of course favorable references to the subcommittees for customs cooperation, trade facilitation and transit to be established that would deal with some of the cross-border trade interactions and injurious practices. Overall there is in my view virtual unanimity on the benefits of promoting intra-african trade for development, job creation, poverty reduction and modernization. Across board all stakeholders, both those in favor and those who have some reservations, point to the issues where the policy makers in government are required to act and to act in coordination regionally. These specific areas requiring intervention and complementary policy action include effective rule-based trade remedy safeguards to ensure that third parties to the agreement shall be prevented from the abuse of origin rules to transship and dump. And this is a very big issue of course with a lot of Nigerian businesses. The abuse of origin rules, especially where this may lead to tranship and dump. But parties to trade agreements should not benefit from trade preferences in agreements to which their governments are not party. And this is an issue also that came up consistently. Predictable cost, effective infrastructure, et cetera, these are more internal issues. Expanding affordable trade finance, including micro-credits and finance for MSMEs, et cetera, fostering an enabling environment for business that enables multiple types, taxation, government highway tolls, internal checkpoints, implementing security investments in trade, infrastructure, especially seaports, inland dry ports, roads and roads. You must of course understand that many in the business community took the opportunity to take knocks on what they felt that the government wasn't doing adequately. So you will see that a lot of what is mentioned here are areas where many feel that more needs to be done in order to strengthen local business for what they perceive will be competition. Mainstreaming into the formal economy, the informal trade along historic trade corridors is also another issue that was considered quite important. That of course along the traditional trade corridors, there were already a lot of trade going on. And many felt that that should be mainstreamed in the formal economy, even as we look at the implementation of the agreement. Empowering women in intra-African trade and harmonizing the still divergent trade policies between and amongst African countries, starting with trade practices with regional economic communities. And this is again another issue that was emphasized. I believe that most African policymakers would possibly accept these feedbacks from Nigeria as having wider validity, especially as having some validity to their own economies as well. In response to the nationwide stakeholder engagement last week on the 22nd of October, and I think this has been mentioned already by the Honourable Minister, at a meeting with stakeholders, President Buhari established the Presidential Committee on Impact and Readiness Assessment on the African continental free trade area. The Presidential Committee is now at work and in full steam, and its final report is expected. As a government, we consider that structural reforms should address the legitimate concerns raised by stakeholders. And we think that this is ongoing anyway, and should not necessarily be an obstacle to full implementation of the agreements. They should be reflected, we believe in the report of the Presidential Committee. As chairman of the Nigerian economic management team, I'm pleased to read and hear that fellow African countries consider this domestic consultative process with stakeholders as a useful model and as a useful engagement. We, as I said, engage constructively with stakeholders, not just on the agreement itself, but also on trade policy at large. I believe that what emerged is illuminating, it holds lessons with some value. The feedback was simple and powerful, and the central message was support for the agreement and for its implementation based on a clear definition of increasing intra-African trade. The core feedback is to prepare thoroughly and also to ensure that the preferences of the agreement would neither be abused nor be enjoyed by third parties that may not be part of the negotiations. I would like to just very quickly also mention the role of the AUC and the UNECA, and especially the visit last week of His Excellency Musa Faki Muhammad, the AU Chairperson, who undertook a visit to Nigeria with very positive results. The Chairperson's visit supported efforts at broadening consensus and deepening regional integration. The process of domestic consultations in Nigeria, although stabilized and on a positive momentum, is going on. At the inauguration of the Presidential Committee last week, President Buhari emphasized, while commending the AFCTA process as worthy and commendable, that agreements that will negotiate should be properly understood, especially by those who would implement them and be accompanied with an implementation plan. As the President said, you know, this is a momentous opportunity for us to get it right and to implement this correctly. You have the full program today and tomorrow, and I'm hopeful that the outcomes of this Africa trade forum will contribute to the process of sensitization and domestic consultations to broaden the base of our consensus, not only in Nigeria, but in all of the countries of the Africa Union. I must pay special tribute to the UNECA, the AUC, and the Rocky Felder Foundation, and to the Nigerian team that has contributed so well and so ably to organizing this activity. Not least, I'd like to acknowledge the ECOWAS Commission. Nigeria is, of course, currently chairing ECOWAS, and I'm aware of the efforts and contributions of the Commission, together with the ECOWAS senior trade officials. So I wish you very robust and fruitful deliberations in the coming days. Thank you all very much.