African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) - "If you’re not at the table, then you’re probably on the menu”.

Over the years, efforts toward deepening economic, social and political cooperation and integration in Africa culminated in a number of treaties, protocols, conventions and other formal agreements entered into by sovereign States, pan-African organizations and regional economic communities.

In recent years, African countries have vigorously pursued continental market integration as a collective development and transformation strategy, culminating in the historic Pan-African initiative - the AfCFTA.

A single market created under the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) connects over 1.3 billion Africans across 55 countries with an aggregate GDP of over $3.4 trillion, is expected to bring considerable benefits to Africa.

The framework Agreement establishing the AfCFTA was negotiated from 2016 to 2018. The Agreement was opened for signature and signed by 44 AU Member States on 21 March 2018 at the 10th Extraordinary Summit of AU Heads of State and Government in Kigali, Rwanda, in parallel with the Kigali Declaration and the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community relating to the Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment.

?To date, 54 of the 55 AU Member States have signed the AfCFTA Agreement, and over 43 countries have approved ratification of the Agreement.

The AfCFTA Agreement officially entered into force on 30 May 2019, 30 days after deposit of the 22nd instrument of ratification.

Since 2021, Phase 1 of the AfCFTA which is start of trading (goods & services) came into effect on January 1, 2021, and covering a market of 1.3 billion consumers with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $3.4 trillion, AfCFTA is reputed as the largest free trade areas in the world base on the number of participating countries.

The scope of the AfCFTA Agreement is large. The Agreement requires AU Member States to progressively remove tariffs on intra-African trade, making it easier for African countries to trade within the continent and to benefit from a growing African market. While a traditional free trade agreement would typically require only the elimination of tariffs and quotas on trade in goods, the AfCFTA Agreement covers - in addition to trade in goods and services - investment, intellectual property rights and competition policy (ECA et al. 2017). The Agreement covers other policy areas, including trade facilitation and services, as well as regulatory measures such as technical barriers to trade and sanitary standards amongst others.

The AfCFTA commits African economies to the removal of trade barriers on imports (tariffs and quotas) that will reduce import costs and consumer prices. Consumers will therefore benefit by being able to consume a larger variety of African products in the single market. These supply and demand effects together engender welfare gains in the form of consumer surpluses in importing African countries (African Export-Import Bank, 2018; Saygili et al. 2018).

A 2020 World Bank Group study entitled The AfCFTA Economic and Distributional Effects shows that gains would come, in part, from decreased tariffs which remain stubbornly high in many countries in the region. Even greater gains, however, would come from lowering trade costs by reducing nontariff barriers and improving hard and soft infrastructure at the borders—trade facilitation measures.

All African countries are expected to benefit from increased value-added exports under the Agreement.

When effectively implemented, the AfCFTA can help boost industrialization and investment, generate direct and indirect employment for women and young Africans, and advance food security, agriculture and infrastructure development. More than that, as an enabler of inclusive economic growth and sustainable development, the AfCFTA can play a critical role in addressing the root causes of “active guns” and drivers of insecurity on the continent, including growing poverty and inequalities, grave health and economic hardships and the marginalization of vulnerable groups - including women, youth and SMEs.

About Pan African Business Labs (PABL)

With active presence in more than 10 African Countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Egypt, Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia, Ghana, Cameroon, Liberia, Botswana and still counting, Pan African Business Labs (PABL) is a multidisciplinary and multisectoral AfCFTApreneurs working to accelerate stakeholders’ effort including Government Implementation Authorities & Actors, International Development Partners, Donors, Association, Businesses, NGOs, CSOs, Media, SMEs and Entrepreneurs' in maximizing the opportunities, gains and impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Send an email: [email protected] to learn more about:

a.) how you can register for our next AfCFTA Bootcamp or better still simply get the training materials to study at your convenience.

b.) how you can join our Training Faculty as a Facilitator in any of our AfCFTA Accelerator Labs across Africa nearest to you.

c.) how you can launch an AfCFTA Accelerator Labs in your Country/Region

d.) ways you can support our effort in democratizing the AfCFTA opportunity and access across communities and demographics including in area where you live.

Learn more: https://web.facebook.com/groups/2230473887106513