BY DANIEL IDONOR

ABUJA -President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday gave an insight into his economic agenda for Nigeria in the next four years, as he called for the establishment of a tax regime on goods imported into Africa as a means of  funding  infrastructural projects on the continent.

   This came barely a few days after the President told Nigerians that hard economic policies awaited them and that they should be prepared for same.

The President also disclosed that by 2015, when the ongoing $20 billion Trans-saharan Gas pipeline construction project which stretches from Nigeria to Algeria would have been completed, a total of 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas would be exported from Warri to Algeria.

   He made the disclosure at the ongoing 25th summit of Heads of States and Government Orientation Committee of the New Partnership for African Developments, NEPAD, in Equatorial Guinea, while presenting Nigeria’s debate on mobilizing resources for funding development projects in Africa, using the Nigeria-Algeria trans-Saharan gas pipeline project as an example.

  The President cited ECOWAS five per cent tax regime on goods coming into ECOWAS countries from outside the sub-region, saying revenue generated from this policy had helped significantly to finance intervention projects within the sub-region.

   In this regard, President Jonathan proposed that the African Union should set up a technical committee to place tax benchmarks on identified goods and raw materials imported into the continent.