The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, has urged the Federal Government to increase support to the private sector while trying to reduce trade barriers between other African countries.
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Launching its 2013 report on Economic Development in Africa subtitled "Intra African Trade: Unleashing Private Sector Dynamism" UNCTAD warned that failure to increase support to private sector would make foreign firms benefit more from the streamlined trading system than indigenous firms.
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UNCTAD added: "The report argues that although the elimination of trade barriers is important, it will not have the desired impact if it is not complimented by efforts by governments to increase the variety and sophistication of the goods that their economies produce, the process that economists call expanding productive capacity."
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According to the report, it is important that Federal Government upgrades infrastructure, improve the skills of domestic workforce, encourage and enable entrepreneurship.