Frances Omotese Uhomoibhi

Frances Omotese Uhomoibhi is the Lead Services Trade Negotiator on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN). She has a BA in Economics from Boston University, an MA in Creative Writing, and an MSc in Entrepreneurship from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her experience primarily centres on services and digital trade negotiations and scheduling, stakeholder engagement, trade policy creation and analysis, within Nigeria, regionally in West Africa and at the multilateral level at the World Trade Organisation. As the founding Secretary of the Nigerian Coalition for Services Industries, Frances drafted Nigeria’s Schedule of Specific Commitments for Trade in Services under the AfCFTA and facilitated the stakeholder consultative process that led to the development of Nigeria’s Services Schedule. She represented Nigeria as the National Services Expert at the ECOWAS Regional and the continental Technical Working Group meetings on Services Trade prior to the signing of the AfCFTA, where she contributed to the drafting and development of the AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Services.

Since returning from the WTO, where she supported the digital trade negotiations and discussions at the multilateral and plurilateral level, she has taken a more active role in data protection discussions in preparation for further work on the Annexes under IPR and Digital Trade. Following the signing of the AfCFTA, she led the Nigerian delegation to participate in bilateral, regional and continental negotiations to improve and coordinate regional positions on the ECOWAS harmonised services schedule. As Chair of the AU Subcommittee on Specific Commitments for Trade in Services, she facilitated the technical review of the draft schedules submitted by State Parties and RECS. She has also led and supported delegations in bilateral and continental negotiations in the areas of digital trade, investment and the trade of goods under the AfCFTA. Since returning from the WTO, where she supported the digital trade negotiations and discussions at the multilateral and plurilateral level, she has taken a more active role in data protection discussions in preparation for further work on the Annexes under IPR and Digital Trade.