The African Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has, in recent years, been a standing item at the Annual Conference of the Trade Law Centre (Tralac) based in South Africa. This year, it is again the case as the annual conference is, for the second year, a virtual event due to the global pandemic. In a statement, Tralac, a public benefit organisation established in 2002 to develop technical expertise and capacity in trade governance across Africa, notes that for trade in goods to take place under this free trade area, negotiated tariff concessions and preferential rules of origin are required. “While notable progress has been made in the rules of origin negotiations, we are not there yet. But, once all offers of tariff concessions, that meet the agreed modalities, have been made, the negotiations process will start in earnest. An ‘interim arrangement’ to permit trade under the schedules of tariff offers, made by end of June 2021, may be agreed, but negotiated outcomes are essential for the AfCFTA,” reads the statement. Tralac, which was set up with the financial support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), further notes that trade in services negotiations are also still underway, with a focus on commitments in the priority services sectors (financial, transport, communication, tourism and business services). “Healthcare services will be included along with other services later. Work on frameworks for regulatory cooperation is also progressing. Negotiations on investment and intellectual property rights have begun. Competition policy (also on the Phase 2...

Despite agriculture being the backbone of the economy in COMESA, it accounts for only 32 per cent of the region’s GDP. Sandra Uwera, Chief Executive Officer of the COMESA Business Council, says the sector provides a pivotal role as a driver of economic growth in the region. She further highlighted the role of women as a vital link within the chain of agriculture, industry, and trade, noting that three-quarters of the employed women in COMESA work within the sector. They also dominate sub-sectors such as flowers, fresh fruits, and vegetables. Data by the bloc reveals that the sector provides livelihoods for about 80 per cent of the region’s workers, and accounts for about 65 per cent of foreign exchange earnings. The continent, which COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe said last month has the potential to feed its self and export to the rest of the world, has remained a net food importer for the last 15 years. Uwera spoke during the institution’s Agro-industry work group meeting that brought together stakeholders to discuss the progress made on recommendations the group put forward in 2020 and to develop a road map for the activities of 2021. The meeting was attended by various players in the agriculture sector, including dairy farmers, commercial grain farmers, tobacco leaf growers, and manufacturers, from across the region. CBC convened the meeting of the institution’s Agroindustry stakeholders to discuss the progress made on recommendations put forward by the workgroup in 2020, and to develop a road map for...

13 July 2021, JUBA—National consultations and an online survey have been launched by stakeholders in South Sudan to provide a platform for women in trade and business to voice their needs and interests with regards to participation in regional and continental trade, to inform the proposed Protocol on Women in Trade of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The online survey was launched by the UN Women Regional Offices of West and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa and the Arab States, in partnership with UNDP and the AfCFTA Secretariat. “South Sudanese women entrepreneurs face similar challenges to women in other locations, and our goal is to fully integrate the Women in Trade Protocol into the AfCFTA agreement. Consultations are an important element in making the development of the Women in Trade Protocol participatory, inclusive, and responsive to the needs and priorities of the women of South Sudan,” said Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare Hon. Ayaa Benjamin Warille, during opening remarks at the launch of the national consultations at Dembesh Hotel in Juba on Tuesday. “We know that if a woman is doing business, she will be doing it for the benefit of her family, the benefit of her community and the benefit of society,” said Hon. Agak Achuil Lual, Undersecretary of Trade for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, adding encouragement: “Although there will be challenges and people may discourage you, work with your sisters and colleagues in the 10 states, and share your ideas [on...

THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is currently preparing the Harmonised Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC), which will determine a list of the final costs paid by consumers for items in a basket of common goods within the region. According to NBS Acting Director of Population, Census and Social Statistics, Ruth Minja, the harmonised CPI will be prepared according to terms and conditions of EAC as six countries across the region flex their muscles to seal the deal for the EAC Monetary Union protocol. “In preparing the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices there are regulations guiding all the EAC countries on how to calculate prices of common goods, so that they remain constant from one period to another,’’ she said. Ms Minja said that Tanzania was equally doing the same in the SADC bloc, being one the member countries within the region as well. She insisted that the harmonised index for consumer prices within EAC and SADC countries is expected to be a composite measure of inflation in the regions. According to Ms Minja, since every member state has its development strategic plan based on a particular period, the CPI takes in consumer price inflation data from each member nation and weights them accordingly into an index The CPI index relies on a basket of consumer goods from both rural and urban regions of each nation. As all member states eye for the Monetary Union, the Index of Consumer...

The number of countries that ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement has increased to 40 with the recent ratification of Zambia, Malawi, Algeria and Burundi, a top official told reporters on Friday, July 9. Secretary-General Wamkele Mene was addressing his second quarterly press briefing. He noted that the DR Congo, Seychelles and Burundi ratified but are yet to deposit their instruments of ratification, quickly adding: "But it's a very positive signal, the fact that 40 countries have ratified." "This is a very important development," Mene noted, adding that he recently visited Tanzania and had fruitful discussions with its leaders. End last month, the Secretary-General visited the country and met with President Samia Suluhu Hassan. "Its President told me that Tanzania will ratify by September and that means that one of the biggest economies in Africa is also going to ratify," he said. "With Tanzania (ratifying) it means that EAC, the entire Customs Union, will now be part of the implementation of the AfCFTA." Burundi ratified the AfCFTA on June 17, becoming the fourth East African Community (EAC) country to ratify following in the footsteps of Rwanda, the most committed country to the Agreement, Kenya and Uganda. The agreement initialed in Kigali, on March 21, 2018, aims to create the largest free-trade area in the world and the EAC business community wants things fast-tracked. The Continental Free Trade Area aims to reduce all trade costs – eliminate 90% of tariffs – and enable Africa to integrate further into...

African countries need to integrate their digital strategies in order to make goals of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) achievable and bring benefits to millions of people on the continent. This is part of the submissions of Managing Partner at Chanzo Capital, Eric Osiakwan while speaking at the recent special edition of the MTN Business Executive Breakfast Series on the theme “Accelerating SME Growth and Development – the role of Digitization”. Watch event here. Because digitization is going to play a key role in actualizing AfCFTA, governments of member countries must commit to a workable and sustainable digitization process by providing the support infrastructure and policies to help foster digital innovation notably within the private sector. Ghana has already taken the lead in providing infrastructure and the policies to drive digitization, said Osiakwan pointing to the ghana.gov platform, GHQR and the soon to be introduced e-cedi by the Bank of Ghana. But AfCFTA’s success across countries will hinge on a continent-wide approach to integrating policy-efforts and infrastructure developments of all its members. Benefits from AfCFTA cannot be achieved in silos, said Osiakwan who has extensive experience in policies and investments on the continent. “The only way to make AfCFTA work is for us to have an Africa-wide digital strategy that bring everyone along and that means we need to quickly start integrating the digital strategies for the benefit of the entire continent,” he said. Touching on the pace at which African countries are adopting blockchain technology, he argued that there is need...

Achieving African integration is not an end in itself. The purpose must be to offer the African citizenry prosperity and security. The objective of both regional and continental integration must enable African countries benefit from economies of scale, trade amongst themselves, move freely across the continent and most importantly, benefit from the common goals of Africa’s Agenda 2063, aimed at shared prosperity, unity and integration. The commemorative activities of the African Integration Day that kicked off on the 7th of July, will examine into details, the status of the continental integration and with particular focus on the role of continental integration in accelerating African economic recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic. In the last two decades, Africa has recorded a 4.6 percent growth rate on average, despite an unfavourable international economic and financial environment. The current COVID-19 pandemic has however plunged the continent into its first recession in 25 years exposing the vulnerability of African economies. The cumulative loss of Africa's GDP is estimated at between $145 and $190 billion with worrying projections that 39 million more people could be pushed into extreme poverty, if urgent and purposed measures are not taken to address the socio-economic difficulties caused by the pandemic. Accelerating African economic recovery has brought to the fore, yet again, the need to piece the puzzle of African integration. With a fragile recovery based on the health, economic and financial measures member states were quick to implement at the onset to curb the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the...

Ghana’s exports to the UK remain largely primary products The Business Climate Report has urged the country to change its old practice of exporting primary products to the United Kingdom (UK), which has persistently resulted in a negative trade balance at the country’s expense. The 2020 report indicated that the UK imported US$242million worth of goods, while Ghana on the other hand imported US$473million worth of goods from the UK – presenting a negative trade balance of about US$231million. This, the report said, is attributed to factors such as the country’s continuous export of raw materials and import of manufactured goods, coupled with a drop in the level of exports against imports in trade with the UK – a trend that may continue for a long time if nothing concrete is done to change the narrative. “The goods traded between the two countries have not changed substantially over the period. Ghana’s exports to the UK remain largely primary products, while imports from the UK have mainly been manufactured goods. This accounts for the negative trade balance to the disadvantage of Ghana. Our forecasts show that this trend is likely to continue into the near future,” the report stated. Top-five exports from Ghana to UK, which are mostly in their raw state, remain as follows: mineral fuels, oils, and distillation products; meat, fish and seafood preparations; cocoa and cocoa preparations; edible fruit, nuts, peel of citrus fruit, melons; and edible vegetables and certain roots and tubers. On the other hand, top-five...

Fintech companies in Africa are flourishing by producing digital systems and infrastructure to make financial services more efficient. And with the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at the start of this year, the companies are well positioned to replicate this success by providing solutions for what is the largest free trade area globally by the number of countries taking part in it. Solving cross-border payment within the continent could “exponentially increase intra-Africa trade,” according to the United Nations Development Programme and the AfCFTA secretariat. In a case study cited in one of their recent reports, Godwin Benson, the CEO of Tuteria, a Nigerian peer-to-peer learning platform, says: “It should be easy for customers in Egypt or Rwanda to pay a business in Nigeria. Recently, a customer from Cameroon wanted to pay us but could not carry out the transaction. Without seamless intra-African payments, businesses like Tuteria, especially those run by young entrepreneurs, may not be able to trade across the continent.” AfCFTA aims to increase intra-African trade by the creation of a single market There’s relatively low trade amongst African countries, compared to other parts of the world. For instance, intra-African trade (the average of intra-African exports and imports), was around 2% in 2015-2017, compared to 61% for Asia and 67% for Europe. AfCFTA aims to create a single market for goods and services in Africa by progressively eliminating tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade. It was brought about by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement , which has been signed by 54 of the...

TradeMark Africa (TMA) and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), signed this afternoon a €29.9 million (approx. USD 35.5 million) grant agreement to contribute to more sustainable and inclusive regional economic integration in the Horn of Africa. The funding comes from the European Union, who delegated it to AFD via a €32 million total financing agreement, signed one week earlier between the two parties. The TMA-AFD project will focus on the Djibouti corridor as the main artery of trade for Ethiopia, whilst also supporting more inclusive trade between Djibouti and Ethiopia. The overall objective is to enhance the competitiveness of this corridor through logistical and regulatory improvements (reduction of transport and transit times at ports and border crossings, simplification of procedures and reduction of associated costs) and strengthening the capacity of stakeholders to benefit from these improvements, including the most vulnerable. It will be implemented according to four lines of operation: Reduction of trade costs and time along the Djibouti-Ethiopia corridor, from Djibouti Port to the Galafi border post and the dry ports in Simplification and harmonisation of procedures, standards and regulations governing trade between the two countries, bringing them into line with the various trade agreements signed, with a view to their Support to enterprises and producers in the logistics sector both in Ethiopia and in Djibouti and in the export Support to the most vulnerable populations: small traders at the borders, women operating in export sectors, , to enable them to take advantage of these improvements. In 2019,...