(3 minutes)
· Wamkele Mene, the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA secretariat admitted that restrictions on account of by Covid-19 have slowed down progress
· The protocol on the movement of persons is a separate instrument and is not part of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), it is an instrument that was negotiated separately and has not yet entered into force, thereby alluding that it could be put into the backburner
· Wamkele admitted that the pandemic had a very severe impact on Africa’s economy. For the first time, there is a technical recession that Africa, mostly sub-Saharan Africa, was experiencing, for the first time in almost 30 years.
Wamkele Mene, the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA secretariat admitted that restrictions on account of by Covid-19 have slowed down progress.
In an interview to an African news agency, Wamkele Mene admitted that Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the process of integration of the continent’s market, which will have a size of US$3 trillion market and could help to realize more than US$84 billion in untapped intra-African exports.
Wamkele said that the protocol on the movement of persons is a separate instrument and is not part of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), it is an instrument that was negotiated separately and has not yet entered into force, thereby alluding that it could be put into the backburner. However, he conceded that there is the need to move quickly on the free movement of persons to enable commerce and trade to be accelerated in the African continent. Regarding the need for a single currency, the secretary general said it was a long term goal and in the interim efforts are underway to establish a pan-African payments and settlements platform, which will be a digital platform for facilitating trade.
Wamkele said that the European Union was the most successful integration story of the time. It has been very successful though, of late, some shortcomings have been developed. While negotiating AfCATA stakeholders have taken into consideration all these factors. That is why a gradual process of integration was being adopted.
Wamkele admitted that the pandemic had a very severe impact on Africa’s economy. For the first time, there is a technical recession that Africa, mostly sub-Saharan Africa, was experiencing, for the first time in almost 30 years. He hoped that the implementation of AfCFTA, aggressively, would be a proper response to the current predicament.
