AfCFTA AND NIGERIA'S DEVELOPMENT: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN WEST AFRICA BORDERLANDS

Abstract

This paper interrogates the developmental implications of the African Continental
Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) for Nigeria, with particular attention to the often-overlooked West
African borderlands. As the continent’s most populous country and an important regional actor,
Nigeria occupies a central role in shaping AfCFTA’s outcomes. The agreement, while widely
framed as a pan-African milestone for economic transformation, presents a complex terrain of
opportunity and constraint for Nigeria. On one hand, it holds the promise of expanded intra-African
trade, export diversification, industrial revitalization, and enhanced regional cooperation. Nigeria’s
strategic sectors, including agro-processing, textiles, and digital services, could benefit from access
to broader markets, increased investment, and job creation. On the other hand, this paper contends
that realising these benefits remains conditional upon addressing a range of domestic and sub-
regional challenges. These include infrastructural deficits, border insecurity, institutional
incoherence, weak productive capacity, and entrenched corruption. The analysis foregrounds the
paradoxes of trade liberalisation in Nigeria’s fragile frontier regions, where informal economies,
porous borders, and overlapping regulatory regimes persist. By situating borderlands as both spaces
of vulnerability and sites of economic potential, the paper highlights how exclusionary governance
practices, particularly the marginalisation of women-led enterprises and small-scale traders,
threaten inclusive participation in AfCFTA. Through a critical political economy lens, the study
argues for a development-oriented trade governance model that foregrounds institutional reform,
local capacity-building, and multi-level coordination. Special emphasis is placed on integrating
informal actors and SMEs into formal value chains, strengthening sub-national engagement, and
harmonising policy across borders. The paper contributes to ongoing debates on regional
integration, state capacity, and the reimagining of Africa’s border economies as engines of
transformative growth.