On 21st March this year, the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area marked one year of existence. It was opened for signature on 21st March, 2018 at an Extra-Ordinary Summit of the Assembly of African Union Heads of State and Government in Kigali, Rwanda. At that Summit, forty-four African Union Member States signed the historic Agreement. The number rose to 49 at the July 2018 Nouakchott, Mauritania Summit. Three more signatures were added during the February 2019 Addis Ababa Summit, bringing the figure to 52 as we commemorate the first Anniversary of this major milestone in Africa’s resolute use of the lever of continental economic integration to deliver prosperity to her people in line with Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. Making the Agreement operational is as important as having signatories. While awaiting the remaining three Member-States to sign on, Africa is progressing very well in the direction of securing deposits of instruments of ratification on the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area. So far, 22 National Parliaments of the African Union Member-States have approved ratification of the Agreement, with 20 Member-States depositing their instruments of ratification. At this point in time, Africa is just short of two deposits of instruments of ratification to have the Agreement enter into force, thirty days after receiving the twenty second instrument of ratification. At the time of going to press, the remaining two Member States assured the Chairperson of the African Union Commission that they would shortly be depositing.[1] It has been a...

1.Nigeria With a Gross Domestic Product of $376.28 billion (Sh38.16 trillion) as at 2017, the west African country is Africa’s largest economy on top of having the largest population. The current population of 200 million based on the latest United Nations estimates makes it a powerhouse of economy and development compared to its neighbours. It has an abundance of natural resources with some of the biggest exports including oil, cocoa, and rubber. In fact, it is Africa’s largest crude oil supplier. Not to mention the rich agricultural sector responsible for 18 per cent of the country’s GDP and almost a third of employment. 2. South Africa The country has the second largest economy in Africa, with a GDP of $349.3 billion (Sh35.44 trillion). Statistics were higher than expected for 2017, seeing as the country’s economy grew by 1.3 per cent, just higher than the National Treasury’s expectation of one per cent. The highest performing industry to contribute to this growth was agriculture, followed by mining and manufacturing. A demand for manganese ore, chrome, iron ore, and anything used in the production of steel helped spur on this growth. Some of the country’s key exports include gold, corn, diamonds, and fruit.  3. Egypt The gross domestic product of the north African country, which has a long, rich trade history with plenty of ups and downs, in 2017 was $237.04 billion (Sh23.862 trillion). After the 2011 revolution, foreign exchange reserves fell considerably. Reserves fell from $36billion (Sh3.65 trillion) in December 2010 to only...

Digital economy in Africa is snowballing, and in the process it’s creating new jobs and opportunities for digital entrepreneurs to explore a larger web market. Though e-commerce represents only 0.6% of all the transactions done in Africa, as compared to 12% in the USA and 20% in China; the budding nature of the industry does rightfully make one muse on the possibility, that e-commerce is indeed Africa’s economic goldmine. Facilitation of Cross Border eTrade The global market has shrunk to a large scale, and is now enabling billions of people to sell and purchase products across borders. This has been made possible by technological innovations that have birthed online marketplaces that enable e-trade between businesses (B2B), between consumers (C2C) and between businesses and consumers (B2C). The opportunities presented by e-commerce are numerous. Africa is a massive market with a growing population of 1.28 billion people, a network of over 15 million SMEs and merchants, and a rising internet connection of 453 million users. Jumia, the leading pan-African e-commerce platform has been on the forefront of Africa’s cross border e-trade revolution. The marketplace is enabling about 81,000 active merchants across Africa, who sometimes source products from international markets, to capitalize on a huge €1.4 trillion consumer market opportunity in Africa. While the milestone has been remarkable, Nicolas Martin, EVP – Marketplace & Logistics for Jumia, noted, at the 2019 UNCTAD’s Africa Ecommerce Week, that “more needed to be done to tailor bespoke regulatory solutions for Africa to attract international investment and create...

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) will trade facilitation portals in Africa through a €3 million (Sh339.7 million) kitty drawn from a €85 million (Sh9.6 billion) fund by the EU to Comesa under the 11th European Development Fund Trade Facilitation Programme. Through a partnership with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Unctad is seeking to increase trade at the continental level by facilitating financial support to Comesa member states. Under the Agreement, Unctad will design and develop the national and regional trade information portals (TIPS) and the customs automation regional centre (CARC) at a cost of €3 million (Sh339.7 million). TIPs will facilitate access to essential trade information in one platform while CARC will support technical and functional training on the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) World Platform thereby improving skills to use applications. This is in addition to developing the latest ASYCUDA Applications to enhance trade facilitation systems at the national, regional and continental levels. Out of the €85 million (Sh9.6 billion) EU kitty, €68 million (Sh7.7 billion) will be used to implement trade facilitation and small-scale cross-border trade. Unctad secretary general Mukhisa Kituyi sealed the agreement at the Comesa headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. He told his host and Comesa counterpart Chileshe Kapwepwe that the regional body needs support for the spirit of regional trade and integration to bear fruit. “We are not going to downplay the centrality facilitated in trade, not only as a way of making Africa competitive but also overcoming...

The biggest news in May will not be the resignation of UK Prime Minister Theresa May but the coming into force, of the much anticipated Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) exactly four years today, since negotiations for the treaty begun in June 2015; it is a milestone worth celebrating. While it is without doubt a collective achievement of African leadership, Rwanda rightly deserves a special mention for the crucial role played by President Paul Kagame, under his mandate as the African Union Chairperson for the year 2018 in which he helped accelerate the actualization of the AfCFTA dream. His charisma and passionate drive quickly set things in accelerated action towards March 21, 2018 when the AfCFTA agreement was signed in Kigali. He continued engaging with counterparts on the continent towards May 30, 2019 when the AfCFTA officially came into force after the 22nd nation threshold to ratify was achieved in April. The AfCFTA excitement is based on what experts have ably articulated as the projected potential benefit to Africans such as turning colonial borders into bridges of cooperation and allow for a single continental market of goods and services and with free movement of persons. It will also facilitate cross-border investment and pave the way for accelerating the establishment of the Continental Customs Union; intra-Africa trade will grow to the tune of between US$50 and 70billion by 2040 with a combined GDP of nearly US$3trillion, according to UNECA. Statistics indicate that trade among African countries is at 15 percent...

The U.S. ditched the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while across the Atlantic, the U.K. is trying to extract itself from the European Union and its single market. But while free trade is under threat in much of the world, African countries are heading in the other direction: the continent is on track to create the largest free trade agreement by population that the world has seen since the 1995 creation of the World Trade Organization. That organization has 164 member countries. On May 30, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will become a reality. All but three of Africa’s 55 countries have signed up, creating a free trade area that covers more than a billion people and a collective GDP of over $2 trillion, and includes most of Africa’s largest economies, including South Africa and Egypt. If hold-outs Benin, Eritrea and Nigeria—Africa’s largest economy—join in, that’s a total of 1.2 billion people and $2.3 trillion in GDP. By way of comparison, NAFTA and the EU-Japan free trade agreement each cover a collective GDP of around $22 trillion. But even when added together, they don’t cover as many people as the AfCFTA will if every African nation joins. Here’s what you need to know about the deal that could transform Africa’s business landscape. WHAT’S THE GOAL? Trade within Africa is in a dire state. A mere 17% of African countries’ exports go to other African countries—compare that with intra-regional trade levels of 59% in Asia and 69% in Europe. That means Africa doesn’t feature much in the way of cross-border value chains. Why? There’s currently a...

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and the Kenya Shipping Agents Association (KSSA) have signed a charter to enhance cargo clearance efficiency and boost regional trade. The Transhipment Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) charter is part of a commitment to boost port operations and clear bottlenecks affecting efficient cargo movement. The charter will ensure clear performance targets and processes for the agencies operating at the Mombasa port. Each party will be given clear timelines while emphasis will be placed on the provision of adequate resources to clear transhipment cargo expeditiously. At the signing ceremony, which was held at the KPA headquarters in Mombasa last week, the KRA Customs and Border Control Commissioner, Kevin Safari described the formulation of SOPs as a key milestone for the shipping stakeholders. Mr Safari was accompanied by KPA general manager (operations) Captain William Ruto, and the Kenya Shipping Agents Association CEO Juma Ali Tellah. Source: Business Daily

The coming into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement, on May 30, 2019, is a turning point for the African continent, experts and integrationists have said. The development means that AfCFTA is now a binding international legal instrument. “For many who have yearned for an integrated Africa, today is that day where hope of an Africa that trades more with itself than the rest of the world is palpable,” Chijioke Odo, Trade Advisor at international accounting firm Deloitte, tweeted yesterday. He added: “Whilst some would argue that removing tariffs would not necessarily increase intra-Africa trade (with logistics, free movement of persons and territorial protectionism being the notorious impediments to intra-Africa trade), it is my view that AfCFTA will galvanise progress.” Change is coming to Africa and those who have not recalibrated their business for the incoming market would be left behind,” he added. Francis Mangeni, Director for Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs at the COMESA Secretariat, told The New Times on Thursday that the entry into force of the trade deal is “a turning point in African history.” The development, he said, opens up a “market of over 1.2 billion people”. The region’s consumer and business spending is over US$4 trillion annually and is estimated to hit US$5.6 trillion by 2025. “The private sector is awake to these prospects and is mobilising,” Mangeni said, adding that “125 companies already have a multinational presence across Africa and a number of developed countries.” Some 400 pan-African companies have...

INTRODUCTION As of April 29, 2019, 22 countries have deposited their instruments of ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement[1] to the African Union (AU), meeting the threshold for the agreement to come into effect. The AfCFTA entered into force on May 30, 2019. The significance of the AfCFTA cannot be overstated: It will be the world’s largest free trade area since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994.Landry Signé has estimated that under a successfully implemented AfCFTA, Africa will have a combined consumer and business spending of $6.7 trillion in 2030.He also finds that the AfCFTA will have a significant impact on manufacturing and industrial development,tourism,intra-African cooperation, and economic transformationUNECA has predicted it will raise intra-African trade by 15 to 25 percent, or $50 billion to $70 billion, by 2040, compared to an Africa without the AfCFTA. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) similarly projects that, under the AfCFTA, Africa’s expanded and more efficient goods and labor markets will significantly increase the continent’s overall ranking on the Global Competitiveness Index.Increased market access, in turn, is expected to enhance the competitiveness of industries and enterprises, the exploitation of economies of scale, and the efficacy of resource allocation. While the AfCFTA’s ratification is a cause for celebration, much work remains as critical parts of the agreement have yet to be completed—including countries’ schedules of tariff concessions and services commitments, rules of origin, investment, intellectual property, competition, and a possible protocol on e-commerce. The extent to which the...

Rwanda is looking for $1.3 billion to fund the construction of the proposed Isaka-Kigali standard gauge railway that links Rwanda and Tanzania, a senior Rwandan official said Tuesday. The figure is higher than $1.2 billion revealed during the launch of the 400 km railway line on January 20, 2018 in Dar es Salaam. "The study for Isaka-Kigali SGR is completed," said Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye, Minister of State in charge of Transport, while speaking at a local radio station talk show. "Rwanda is looking for a staggering around $1.3 billion to finance its portion with the aim of reducing logistics costs, boosting trade and easing the movement of people between Rwanda and Tanzania." Investing in transport projects is among the Rwandan government's top priorities as a way to attract investment in productive sectors, improve business environment and increase jobs opportunities, he said. Initial studies had shown that the project that will connect landlocked Rwanda to the Dar es Salaam port was estimated to cost $2.5 billion. Source: Rwanda Today