 Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, President. The head of the civil service of the Federation, Dr. Foulash Adéyeh Yameyesson, the President and Chairman of the Council of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management, CIPM, Mr. Wale Adedio, the Vice-President of the CIPM, Mrs. Titi Akisoy, and other members of the CIPM leadership committee. Patrons and past presidents of the CIPM present, members of the CIPM, honored guests, especially those guests from all over Africa and the world, participants, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen. I'm really honored by the invitation from the President and Council of the Institute to join you at this 52nd Annual National Conference. I must say that just as the President had said, this is my second conference of the CIPM. I was at the 50th conference and, you know, being so regular at all these conferences, I'm beginning to feel that I am perhaps in some ways a member of the CIPM myself. But this is a unique and historic conference and it's been held as a pandemic ravages the world, creating a non-presidential health and economic crisis. But this conference demonstrates the opportunity that this otherwise bleak situation provides. Here we are at what must be and has been said to be the first virtual conference in the history of the Institute, an extraordinary feat by itself. But the icing on the cake is that this virtual format allows more of our friends and colleagues from all over Africa and the world to participate. And this is the paradox of the season that we're in. A time of huge crisis, but even bigger opportunities, which brings me to the topic I've been asked to make a few remarks on. And that is, I quote, Nigeria and manpower preparedness for the African continental free trade area agreement. Nigeria and manpower preparedness for the African continental free trade area agreement. End of quote. The African free trade agreement itself established Africa's single liberalized market for trading goods and services. This will be the largest free trade area in the world. But unlike regional free trade agreements before it, this agreement goes beyond just trading goods and services. It also covers intellectual property, competition policy and investments. So it's a huge trade agreement and it's very innovative in that it goes beyond just trading goods and services. It goes into intellectual property, competition, policy, competition, policy and investments. But practically every aspect of the agreements, even from the negotiations, even at the stage when we're negotiating the agreements, every step provides and still provides significant opportunities for manpower resources. So at the negotiations of the free trade agreements, Nigeria put forward an A team of negotiators. Indeed, the head of the Nigerian team, the late ambassador, was chosen by consensus of his African colleagues to chair the main intensive stages of the negotiations. The late ambassador was then the director general of the Nigeria office for trade negotiations. The creation of the Nigeria office for trade negotiations or NOTN was a deliberate decision by the federal government to change our approach to trade negotiations by ensuring that our participants, our negotiators, our top class individuals with sound technical knowledge and adequate preparation. So it's imperative that Nigeria continues to lead on these negotiations as we move into the second phase that will focus on intellectual property and competition policy and investment policy. So it's a crucial area of manpower resources. The sorts of talents that are required to negotiate effectively, negotiate knowledgeably in different aspects of trade and of course in other aspects of our international endeavors. But this will require the scaling up of our official negotiating capacities and the private sector must support this process by bringing their interests, concerns and understanding of the practical dynamics of international trade to the attention of government and by paying close attention to the negotiation process. So it's important also for the private sector to understand that even in this process of negotiation what we try to do is to ensure that we bring in the practical dimensions of international trade by enabling the private sector to participate with us even at every stage of preparation for negotiations and at the negotiating table also. So it's an important opportunity for the private sector to bring in their own skills, their own knowledge and experience to the table so that this whole exercise is not just well negotiated and prepared but we are also able to take maximum advantage of it. I should state however that building productive capacity is only the first step. The ability of our businesses and entrepreneurs to integrate successfully into the opportunities of the free trade agreement also depends a great deal on strengthening our domestic ability to facilitate trade. In other words our logistics chains, our port processes and customs procedures must be dynamic and efficient and it's obvious that the capacities of the operators and workers in these areas need to be rapidly upscaled through training and including them and inclusion in the use of technologies. So there is a whole area that required a whole area of training, whole area of manpower development that is required just to be able to competently engage with trade partners, to be able to competently engage with trade worldwide as important participants in the free trade agreements. So there is a whole range of training that is required and a whole range of manpower development that is required here. This is why we are paying particular attention too to the rapid implementation of the National Single Windows Project which we expect will radically improve trade facilitation. Given the size of our economies, also clear that Nigeria must play a leading role in the harmonization and integration of border management, regulatory cooperation and also the formalization of informal cross-border trade on the continent. These actions are necessary to assist and support our MSMEs to be able to make use of the opportunities that are afforded us by these free trade agreements. There's another area in which we need to scale up manpower and this isn't the use of even the free trade agreement provisions themselves. We must not only understand the opportunities that arise from membership of the free trade agreements, we must also know what safeguards and trade remedies the agreements provide against dumping, against transshipment and other unfair trade practices. In government the National Office for Trade Negotiations has done substantial work on thinking about the national architecture of trade remedies and we expect the legal framework to be approved in the context of the work of the National Action Committee for the implementation of the free trade agreements. This committee is co-chaired at the moment by the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning. What is imperative for Nigerian businesses also to familiarize themselves with the free trade agreement rules because they will have to assist in providing the evidence to trigger action on trade remedies by government. Indeed to be able to measure the impact of the free trade agreements on the economy including providing evidence on its benefits or on unfair trade practices is clear that we must strengthen domestic capacity to produce and disseminate and use reliable trade statistics. Fortunately the National Bureau of Statistics has been working on these issues and its work in this regard will be extremely useful and I'm sure that already the linkage with the African Trade Observatory which is part and parcel of the architecture of the free trade agreements is going on. The African Trade Observatory has been set up to be the main repository of African trade data to help overcome the poor quality of trade information in the continent. So it's very evident that knowledge, knowledge, knowledge is going to be crucial in everything that we do. Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge that's just going to be absolutely important. So the private sector needs to develop sufficient knowledge in and around the free trade agreements. We need to develop sufficient knowledge about trade facilitation. We need to follow closely and our organizations that if want to participate and benefit from free trade agreements, our organizations need to follow closely what is happening with the negotiations. How are these negotiations going in my own sector? How is it going in the financial sector? How are the negotiations going in the manufacturing sector? What is important for us to take note of? The private sector must remain engaged in this and of course this is an important area of developing resources and vampire resources to be able to actively engage in this in these very important spaces. Ultimately we'll be able to make full use of the free trade agreements to stimulate domestic growth. Also by undertaking smart investments in infrastructure, by aligning our educational curriculum to prepare young people to participate in the digital economy and by imparting skills to improve their productivity. We are part, a very crucial part of the global economy and we must prepare to participate actively in order to reap the gains from trade. From the point of view of creating opportunities for Nigerian manpower, Nigeria is also pushing for the implementation of complementary programs and protocols, including the protocol on free movement of persons and the pan-African payment systems. Now these two protocols are very important in ensuring that we're able to benefit maximally from the free trade agreements, the free movement of persons in particular. Unlike the free trade agreement, the protocol on free movement of persons is not gathering the desired pace of ratifications. It's not being ratified as quickly as AFTA and the reason is very simple. There's a fear amongst many countries that migrants, migrant talents could out-compete nationals for jobs and the likely social tensions that may then arise in the recipient countries. So people are scared, many countries are scared that if you allow free movement of talent, you allow free movement of persons who can just go from one Afghan country to another under these protocols and participating in the free trade agreements, they may out-compete their own nationals and it may give rise to social tensions and all that. But we in Nigeria are not scared because we have the personnel, we have several talents. But since the movement of persons is key for trade, especially trade in services, such as tourism, professional services, such as banking, etc., then it stands to reason that the success of the free trade agreement itself in the medium term would require a faster ratification and implementation of the protocol on free movement of persons. For Nigeria, this protocol on free movement of persons is crucial as I've said. We have a comparative advantage in very skilled and competent personnel and these opportunities cannot be realized without the protocols being passed. So sometimes people ask the question, okay so Nigeria is slowing down a bit on AFCTA but we see the total picture, we understand the total picture, we understand how the AFCTA, that's a free trade agreement, must work in tandem with the free movement of persons, the protocol on free movement of persons. That is crucial for us. We have the numbers, we have the trained personnel, we have the competence and how people should be able to go anywhere in Africa, find jobs and find opportunities and take advantage of these protocols and the free trade agreements. Similarly, the establishment of the Pan-African Payments and Settlement Platform by Africa Exim will create the desired continental payment system and enable cross-border informal trade which is estimated at the moment to be about something in the order of $93 billion per annum. This is also a huge area of opportunity for our banks and for our fintechs. We have perhaps the most robust financial services sector at least in sub-Saharan Africa. We have the people and the skills to benefit maximally from payment systems. What requires hard work for us is in ensuring that these protocols are passed and that we're then able to take advantage of them. But also free movement of talents across the continent will create greater competition. This means that our own talents confident as we are must also constantly up their game to remain valuable and to remain marketable. So Mr. President, distinguished members of council and members of the CIPM, it's reassuring that as the leading personnel management body in Nigeria, the CIPM has placed a very important issue of our preparedness to take advantage of the enormous opportunities in the Africa trade agreements on its agenda. And I hope that you will share the ideas emanating from your own discussions on this matter with government. They will be extremely useful for us, not only in honing our pathways as we negotiate especially the second phase of the free trade agreements, but also it will contribute as we finalize work on our successful medium term plan to the economic recovery and growth plan. So it is now my very special privilege and honor to declare open the 42nd annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria. I wish you excellent deliberations. Thank you very much.