BUSINESS REPORTER
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and the African Development Bank’s African Development Fund have signed a Protocol of Agreement as the two institutions formalise their shared commitment towards the effective implementation of the AfCFTA agreement.
AfCFTA Secretariat secretary general Wamkele Mene and African Development Bank’s acting vice president for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Yacine Fal signed the Protocol of Agreement for the grant of US$11.24m for AfCFTA implementation on the sidelines of the 9th meeting of the AfCFTA council of ministers responsible for Trade in Accra, Ghana on Monday.
Mene said the AfCFTA Secretariat welcomed the support saying it is a clear indication of “our strategic partnership” that will strengthen the capacity of the Secretariat and facilitate the start of commercially meaningful trade under the AfCFTA preferences.
“The Covid-19 pandemic and the current geopolitical tensions have created an ethos of urgent collective action for the implementation of the AfCFTA. We all have a shared responsibility to change the destinies of all Africans as we achieve the laudable objective of the AfCFTA,” Mene said.
Fal said AfDB was proud of the strong partnership with the AfCFTA Secretariat and confident that this institutional support will enable “our respective mandates to spur greater continental trade and economic transformation, in line with Agenda 2063’s vision of the Africa we want”.
“Africa’s hope for building back strong and better lies with the successful implementation of the AfCFTA,” Fal said.
Africa is banking on AfCFTA, the largest trading bloc by member countries after the World Trade Organisation, to pull the continent out of poverty.
AfCFTA seeks to bring together all 55 member states of the African Union, covering a market of more than 1.2 billion and a combined GDP of over US$3 trillion.
