News
Moghalu Harps On Private Sector Bill Of Rights
The Chairman, Board of Directors and Advisory Board, Africa Private Sector Summit, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has reiterated the importance of Private Sector Bill of Rights (PSBoR) in business development in Africa.
Moghalu in a statement made available in Lagos, spoke at the AfCFTA Joint Private Sector Session 2023 Afreximbank Intra-African Trade Fair, Cairo, Egypt, yesterday.
According to him, PSBoR must be adopted as companion instrument to the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in order to create Africa everyone wants.
Moghalu said: “Trade, business and economies in general cannot grow sustainably, create wealth and lift millions from poverty without strong, predictable enabling business environments.
“This is the value proposition of the Africa Private Sector Summit’s proposed Charter on the Private Sector Bill of Rights (PSBoR).
“As I hope that I have demonstrated, the PSBoR is an indispensable compliment to Africa’s Regional Economic Communities and the potentially transformative AfCFTA Treaty.
“The Private Sector Bill of Rights, when adopted, will provide many practical benefits to varied stakeholders including governments, stock exchanges, African businesses, development partners, and the continental and global publics.”
He said that thriving businesses would pay taxes to the government and increasing revenues, adding that a thriving private sector generates listings and sustainability of capital markets.
“Productive economies with skilled, well educated labour forces will position Africa to join the 4th Industrial Revolution.
“The complimentarity of the Private Sector Bill of Rights to the RECS and the AfCFTA equals an Africa that is truly open for business,” Moghalu said.
Describing RECs and AfCFTA – regional trade as the path to prosperity, Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said that decades ago, Africa’s political leaders recognised, with foresight, that regional integration and trade are a powerful path to achieving prosperity.
He recounted that the African leaders established eight RECs that became the regional building blocks of the African Union and, ultimately, the AfCFTA.
He stressed that AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area, with the main purpose of progressively reducing the steep tariff barriers and trade costs that have for decades prevented the growth of trade and prosperity within the continent.
According to him, trading across borders under the terms of the AfCFTA began on Jan. 1, 2021 and as of August 2023, 47 out of 54 African countries have ratified the treaty.
He said that when fully implemented, the AfCFTA would boost intra-African trade by 52 per cent, lift 30 million people out of poverty, and increase the continent’s GDP by USD 450 billion by 2035.
Highlighting roles of private sector and government, Moghalu said that the continental targets simply could not be achieved without the private sector.
He said that while governments had signed and ratified the AfCFTA, it was companies and business enterprises that trade across Africa, far more than governments.
“This means that the African private sector must be strengthened to leverage the provisions and protocols of the AfCFTA to expand intra-African trade to create prosperity,” Moghalu said.
Speaking further on the African Private Sector Summit (APSS) and the Private Sector Bill of Rights, Moghalu stressed the need to leverage the private sector’s ability to drive trade and investment in our continent.
According to him, to help achieve an enabling environment for business in the continent, APSS is engaging with African governments and other relevant parties for the adoption by all African countries of a Charter on the Private Sector Bill of Rights (PSBoR) for an enabling Blbusiness environment.
Moghalu added: “The Private Sector Bill of Rights contains 24 specific rights.
“These rights include the rights to easy establishment of businesses, a conducive legal framework for business, infrastructure, peace and security, and consultative relationships between governments and businesses in the making of regulations that govern or affect business.
“The adoption of the Private Sector Bill of Rights will fast-track the actualisation of the key Framework Protocols of the AfCFTA.”
According to him, the APSS’s goal is to have the Charter on the Private Sector Bill of Rights adopted by at least 22 African countries, but preferably all countries on the continent that are members of the 55-Member State African Union,.
He said that it should also be adopted by the Pan-African Parliament, and then adopted at the Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union.
Moghalu said: “We will seek adoption by national parliaments and/or the Executive branches of government. We are walking a similar path as that which led to the successful adoption of the AfCFTA.
“The specific rights identified in the Private Sector Bill of Rights come from the protocols of the RECs and AfCFTA.
“The PSBoR is intended as an essential companion instrument to the AfCFTA treaty, one that domesticates the continental trade agreement inside national governments, private sector governing and coordinating entities, and in the operations of the African marketplace in reality.
“I believe that the Private Sector Bill of Rights when adopted by African countries and alongside the RECs and AfCFTA, addresses a fundamental conundrum that has confronted post-colonial Africa for decades.”
“Why have market-oriented economies created broad-based wealth in Europe, North America and increasingly in Asia but poverty remains high in the vast majority of African countries?
“Breaking this jinx is the goal of the AfCFTA and the African Union’s vision 2063 – The Africa We Want,” he said.
He attributed high poverty in the continent to the relatively low level of intra-African trade.
“The PSBoR guarantees, amongst other rights, the right to favorable credit terms to support short, medium and long term investment projects as well as trade credit supported by the Africa Trade Insurance.
“ It also guarantees the right to benefit from scientific progress (innovation) and the right to local content in intellectual property,” he said.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted 1.63 million pills of tramadol concealed in two long trailers heading for Kano as it intensified efforts to dismantle a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor.
The agency also arrested an 80-year-old suspected drug dealer in Rivers State, a businesswoman linked to cannabis shipments from Canada, a Chadian woman, a couple and other suspects in coordinated operations across Lagos, Edo, Kogi and Rivers states.
The NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement, yesterday.
According to the statement, the latest intelligence-led operation came barely one week after NDLEA operatives recovered 558,900 pills of tramadol concealed in the false-bottom compartment of a truck that entered Lagos through the Togo-Benin Republic route.
Babafemi said, “Ongoing efforts to dismantle a transnational drug trafficking syndicate smuggling tramadol from Togo, through Benin Republic into Nigeria have yielded another success with the interception of two long trailers used to move One Million Six Hundred and Thirty (1,630,000) pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in fabricated compartments of the trucks across multiple borders into Lagos.”
He added that one of the two trailers was intercepted on July 2 along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, where operatives recovered 853,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor.
Babafemi said, “One of the two trucks already heading to Kano was tracked and located on 2nd July 2026 along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway where NDLEA officers recovered 853,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor of the trailer and arrested the 22-year-old driver Jabir Kabiru.”
He further disclosed that another trailer was intercepted two days later on the same route.
“Two days later, 4th July, NDLEA operatives acting on processed intelligence successfully tracked and recovered the second trailer from the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway while heading to Kano. A total of 777,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor of the truck were evacuated and the 22-year-old driver Muhammed Nuhu arrested,” the statement read.
According to Babafemi, investigations established a link between the three intercepted consignments.
He said, “Investigations revealed that all three trucks and consignments intercepted on 21st June, 2nd July and 4th July belong to the same transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria axis.”
The agency also intercepted 4.70 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
Babafemi said, “Two consignments of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, with a combined weight of 4.70 kilograms have been intercepted at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos. The cargoes, which arrived the Lagos airport from Canada in cartons with ‘Odugwu’ boldly written on them, came aboard British Airways and Ethiopian Airlines flights on 24th June and 3rd July respectively.”
He said two cargo agents, Ali Rotimi Samson and Orimolade Oluwagbenga, were initially arrested in connection with the shipments, while another suspect, Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus, was apprehended after arriving at a logistics company to take delivery of the consignments.
The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction has denied claims that it has commenced registration for a purported ?50,000 National Support Allowance.
The ministry, in a public notice posted on its official X handle, yesterday, described messages, links and websites advertising the alleged programme as fraudulent.
It urged Nigerians to disregard such claims and verify information only through official government channels.
“The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction has NOT commenced registration for any ?50,000 National Support Allowance,” the ministry said.
It added, “Disregard fraudulent messages, links and websites claiming otherwise. Verify any info only through official govt channels.”
The alert is in response to a circulating scam flyer that falsely claims the program is ongoing under President Bola Tinubu’s directives.
The fake advertisement, which includes text in Hausa and English, directs victims to a suspicious website (kluspz.com) for applications.
The ministry’s warning comes amid heightened concerns over digital fraud targeting vulnerable populations seeking social support.
Similar scams have previously surfaced around programs like N-Power, prompting questions from citizens in replies to the official post.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed its preparedness for a major national struggle for a comprehensive review of the national minimum wage.
NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, hinted at this while making his remarks at the commissioning of the Comrade Godwin Abumisi Pensioners Legacy House and Multipurpose Hall in Abuja.
Ajaero said it is no longer acceptable to discuss the welfare of workers without also discussing the welfare of those who have completed their active years of service.
He advised workers and pensioners to get prepared for the ideological and economic battles that lie ahead.
According to the NLC president, “The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) is one of the proud affiliates of the Nigeria Labour Congress. Therefore, your struggle is our struggle, and your welfare remains a priority for the organised labour movement.
“We are currently in the preparatory stages for a major national struggle for a comprehensive review of the national minimum wage.
“However, let me state unequivocally that it is no longer acceptable to discuss the welfare of workers without also discussing the welfare of those who have completed their active years of service.
“Accordingly, the Nigeria Labour Congress will not only push for a new national minimum wage but will also demand the establishment of a national minimum pension. It is a historical injustice that men and women who devoted their youth, strength and productive years to the service of this nation should be condemned to live below the poverty line after retirement.”
Ajaero noted that the cost of living has risen astronomically as food, healthcare and transportation have become increasingly unaffordable.
“We cannot continue to allow our senior citizens to survive on pensions that have become poverty wages. Every retiree deserves to live with dignity after decades of faithful service to the nation,” he said.
He urged pensioners across the country to remain united and prepared as the process begins, adding: “This Legacy House should not merely be seen as a physical structure; it should become a centre for mobilisation, strategic engagement and solidarity as we prepare for the struggles ahead.”
The NLC president pointed out that the working class has always understood that “those who exploit workers are united in advancing their interests. We too must remain united in defending our collective interests and ensuring that government fulfils its obligations to both serving workers and retirees.”
He urged pensioners across the country to remain united and prepared as the process begins, adding: “This Legacy House should not merely be seen as a physical structure; it should become a centre for mobilisation, strategic engagement and solidarity as we prepare for the struggles ahead.”
The NLC president pointed out that the working class has always understood that “those who exploit workers are united in advancing their interests. We too must remain united in defending our collective interests and ensuring that government fulfils its obligations to both serving workers and retirees.”
He said the completion of the project should serve as a clarion call to all workers and lovers of the masses.
“We must not only build physical structures but also build a strong movement capable of compelling government to honour its commitments,” he said.
Ajaero further stated: “We will continue to demand the immediate payment of all outstanding pension arrears and the implementation of a pension regime that guarantees every retiree a life of dignity and security.
“Together, we shall continue to fight until every Nigerian worker and pensioner receives the justice, respect and welfare they deserve.”
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