AfCFTA Progress - H.E. Wamkele Mene. Secretary General AfCFTA Secretariat

H.E. Wamkele Mene , Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat providing an update on the status of the implementation of the #AfCFTA including the implementation of the Pan African Payments and Settlement System (PAPSS) the AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative as well as the status of ratifications by Member States
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is one of the Flagship Projects of Africa’s development framework, Agenda 2063. The AfCFTA was approved by the 18th ordinary Session of Assembly of Heads of State and Government, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2012 which adopted the decision to establish an African Continental Free Trade Area and the Action Plan for Boosting intra-African trade as a key initiatives whose implementation would promote socio-economic growth and development. The AfCFTA aims at accelerating intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by strengthening Africa’s common voice and policy space in global trade negotiations
The objectives of the AfCFTA are to:
• Create a single market for goods, services, facilitated by movement of persons in order to deepen the economic integration of the African continent and in accordance with the Pan African Vision of “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa” enshrined in Agenda 2063;
• Create a liberalised market for goods and services through successive rounds of negotiations;
• Contribute to the movement of capital and natural resources and facilitate investments building on the initiatives and developments being undertaken by the State Parties and RECs;
• Lay the foundation for the establishment of a Continental Customs Union at a later stage;
• Promote and attain sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality and structural transformation of the State Parties;
• Enhance the competitiveness of the economies of State Parties within the continent and the global market;
• Promote industrial development through diversification and regional value chain development, agricultural development and food security;
• Resolve the challenges of multiple and overlapping memberships and expedite the regional and continental integration processes
Learn more about them work of the AfCFTA Secretariat by visiting www.au-afcfta.org