Policy and advocacy think tank, AfroChampions, has released a detailed report on how the outbreak of COVID-19, the global pandemic, has disrupted the start of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which is expected to transform trade, commerce and business in African countries.
The AfroChampions report said Africa, as a whole, had a commitment and readiness level of below 50 per cent, arguing that the continent was looking forward to opening its borders to a new trade revolution which was to start in July 2020. But now almost all of African countries’ borders have been shut in order to fight the pandemic.
The think tank believes with the pandemic, it is likely that more countries will lose interest in the AfCTA and that could have a negative impact on the grand trade plan. It also predicts that COVID-19 could plunge many companies operating in Africa into serious financial stress.
“COVID-19 is already destroying much of the African private sector. AfroChampions early surveillance indicates some of the continent’s strongest companies and businesses are already in severe financial stress. Without an industrial rescue plan COVID-19 could further de-industrialize Africa”, portions of the report said.
When Africa was preparing to roll out the AfCFTA, then COVID-19 struck. The AfCFTA was described as the game-changer for Africa’s socio-economic development by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
The March 2020 opening and operationalization of the AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra, Ghana’s capital, has delayed. The AfCFTA Secretary-General,Mr Wamkele Mene, has been sworn into office but it is without the full complement of the secretariat team due to disruptions to recruitment and staffing caused by the prevailing ravaging pandemic.
The effective operations of the AfCFTA would have provided the opportunity for Africa to create the world’s largest free trade area, with the potential to unite about 1.3 billion people in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of socio-economic development. When the AfCFTA finally takes off, the free trade area is the largest in the world in terms of the number of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
To date, 29 countries have both signed and ratified the AfCFTA Agreement. Of the 55 African Union (AU) member states, only Eritrea is yet to sign. The operational phase of the AfCFTA was launched during the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU in Niamey, Niger, on 7 July, 2019.
The Agreement was brokered by the AU and was signed by 44 of its 55 member states in Kigali, Rwanda, on 21 March, 2018. The agreement initially requires members to remove tariffs from 90% of goods, allowing free access to commodities, goods and services across the continent.
Credit: primenewsghana.com
