A Professor of International Law and Jurisprudence, Akin Oyebode, has described the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a dream deferred, which has not secured requisite traction since its take-off.

The similarity in the goods and products of the different African countries, Oyebode said, did not avail the complementarity which diversity would have facilitated.

Oyebode, who was the keynote speaker, said this at the 45th yearly conference of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), where he spoke on the theme: ‘The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and National Development: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities.

He lamented that the failure by many of the state parties to transform AfCFTA Act into domestic laws has also not helped matters, stating that out of plain fear or docility, many African countries have been unable to be assertive or stand up to the wiles of imperialism.

Naira, Nigeria’s legally approved means of exchange on Wednesday recorded marginal appreciation at the official window, a day after the country issued $4 billion Eurobond.

Liquidity in the market rose by 14.49 percent as the daily foreign exchange market turnover printed at $229.72 million on Wednesday from $200.65 million recorded on Tuesday

Consequently, after trading on Wednesday the dollar was quoted at N413.18 as against N413.28 quoted on Tuesday, representing 0.02 percent gain, data from the FMDQ indicated.

Currency traders who participated at the trading session on Wednesday maintained bids at between N409.00k and N415.00k per dollar

Oil prices rose further Thursday, but cash strapped Nigeria is again facing the curious dilemma arising from its failure to pump out enough crude to meet the country’s OPEC.

Thursday’s price surge extends the strong gains overnight with fuel demand growing and crude stocks declining as production remains hampered in the US Gulf of Mexico after two hurricanes.

Nigeria suffers from the twin crises of foreign exchange shortage and collapse in government revenues but persistent policy failures mean its oil industry has remained in virtual doldrums for years.

Reports say the improving international market was also supported by a broader switch back into risk assets as concerns eased over a potential default by huge property developer China Evergrande and the possible fallout on the world’s second-largest economy.

The Kenyan shilling continued weakening early in the week against major currencies, hitting its lowest point this year yesterday in the latest fragile economic condition.

Official data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that the local currency exchanged at a mean of Sh110.16 for each US dollar, in what promises to make imports more expensive in coming days.

Kenya is a net importer and a depreciation of the shilling has a net effect of increasing the prices of goods, including electricity and fuel.

The shilling has been weakening steadily in the last few weeks, sliding from Sh107.9 in July, to Sh109.7 at the end of August. In September, the home currency has further lost ground to cross the new Sh110 psychological point and it appeared to be dropping further as importers increased demand for the greenback.

Apart from imports costs shooting up, a weaker shilling has a direct impact on Kenya’s foreign-denominated loans given that the country pays a huge chunk of its loans in dollars.

“For every shilling that weakens against the dollar, Kenya’s external debt grows by Sh40 billion going by our latest external debt numbers which is Sh4 trillion,” Mr Tony Watima, an economist, said.

But on the flipside, exporters will be smiling all the way to the bank given that a weakening shilling makes exported goods cheaper, and therefore more competitive in the global market.

Watima noted that inflation is likely to increase because of intermediate raw materials that Kenya imports for manufacturing.

“The other impact is that a weak Kenya shilling means our debt position shifts,” Mr Watima said.

Kenya’s risk of debt distress has grown from moderate to high as the country continued its borrowing spree to fund expensive infrastructure projects and deal with a ballooning budget deficit.

The overall debt hit Sh7.71 trillion in June, and is set to spiral to Sh8.75 trillion by the close of the fiscal year, just Sh250 billion shy of hitting the statutory Sh9 trillion debt ceiling that will trigger a fresh move by the National Treasury to seek Parliament’s approval to raise the debt ceiling.

The weakening of the Kenyan shilling has been partly attributed to increasing dollar demand from importers alongside the stay of excess liquidity within the financial markets.

The Central Bank of Kenya has been aggressively defending the home currency in the past several weeks by deploying what is known as open market operations (OMOs) to ease any volatility in the exchange rate by the sale of re-purchasing agreements (repos).