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President Muhammadu Buhari Agrees that Nigeria will sign landmark deal to scrap trade tariffs among African countries. Africa’s most populous country has been one of only three African states to hold back on signing the agreement after local manufacturers said they would be badly hit by liberalisation. But in a tweet, the presidency said Buhari would sign the pact when leaders of the 55-nation African Union meet in Niger’s capital Niamey from this weekend. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) aims at spurring business across Africa, a market of 1.2 billion people — expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050 — and a current GDP of $2.5 trillion (2.22 billion euros). The agreement would progressively eliminate tariffs among AU members, creating the world’s largest free-trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).