The vision of African countries to open up the continent to trade, especially among member states, has taken shape with the official inauguration and handing over of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat in Accra. On Wednesday 7th November 2018 the Sierra Leone Parliament debated and ratified with unanimity the AfCFTA Agreement aimed at promoting trade liberalisation in Africa. Speaking prior to the ratification, the then Minister of Trade and Industry, Peter Bayuku Konte’, said the agreement will cover an African market of 1.2 billion people with a gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion across all 55 member states of the African Union.
This is the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organisation. Sierra Leone like the other participating countries will benefit from progressive elimination of intra-African trade tariffs aimed at making trade easier within the continent. Ghana won the bid in July 2019 to host the AfCFTA secretariat and as part of the obligations and commitment in the Host Country Agreement the country is required to provide a fully-furnished office complex as the headquarters of the secretariat and an official residence for the Secretary-General.
Speaking at the inauguration of the secretariat, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo called on all African leaders to put in the necessary structures and resources to make the agreement that has created the largest trading bloc in the world become a success for the prosperity of the African people. “We are now the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organisation, and we must make it happen. It will provide the vehicle for us to trade among ourselves in a more modern and sophisticated manner. It will offer a huge opportunity to exploit the abundant resources of our great continent for the benefit of our people. So I urge member states to put in extra efforts to complete all outstanding implementation issues,” he said at the inauguration ceremony in Accra.
The AfCFTA provides the opportunity for Africa to create the world’s largest free trade area, with the potential to unite 1.3 billion people in a US$2.5 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development.
By Ophaniel Gooding