The African
Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement has made significant progress in
the last few years, thanks to the commitment of the continent’s heads of state,
Mr Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, has said.
Speaking at
a meeting with media managers, Mr Mene said the Secretariat had been able to
make significant progress in trade rules, especially the rules of origin, which
are key to measuring the movement of goods across borders.
He said
with over 5,000 different products being traded on the continent, it was always
going to be difficult, adding that a fragmented regime was an affront to trade
and investment.
“We have
now been able to negotiate almost 90 per cent of the rules of origin. So, 5,000
products that we have in Africa we now have agreement close to 90 per cent. It
is a remarkable achievement,” adding that every single item has to be
negotiated.
“We’ve
produced all the certified documents to trade with and it is now up to the
member states to cooperate diligently with the process to make sure that trade
is fully exploited,” the Secretary General noted.
Mr Mene
said the continent would start trading based on the rules of origin agreement,
adding that all the documents needed to begin the trade are in place and those
member countries needed to ensure that trade duly happened.
He said
some countries including Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, Cameroon and Mauritius have their
customs systems in place, which could allow them to import, and export based on
the agreed rules of origin.
Mr Mene
said the governments needed to do much work on the customs infrastructure
although all countries could not be ready at the same time. Touching on the
private sector, Mr Mene said it is the pillar of the implementation of the
AfCFTA as about 60 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is derived from
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that create the jobs.
He also
said that the Secretariat and the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) had
launched the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System – a cross-border,
financial market infrastructure enabling payment transactions across Africa to
boost intra-Africa trade and for financial inclusion among SMEs.
The African
Continental Free Trade Area is to create a single market for goods and
services, eased by the movement of persons to deepen the economic integration
of the African continent.
Launched in
August 2020, the trade pact, which is expected to connect about 1.3 billion
people across 55 countries have seen 43 countries deposit their instruments for
ratification to start trade.
It is also
expected to move about 30 million people out of extreme poverty, boost Africa’s
income by seven per cent to $450 billion by 2025, and add $76 billion to the
income of the rest of the world.
Source GNA