The Africa continent is the home of 54
countries. From the north to the east, and south to the west, the need to trade
together occupies people, businesses and governments’ minds more than social
and political activities. In the last two decades, countries on the continent
have had a number of economic agreements using regional and continental
approaches.
Recently, African Continental Free Trade
initiative has surfaced with the strategic intent of making the 54 countries’
economies stronger and enhances people and businesses’ growth. As the debate
on the need of some biggest African economies to be part of the African
Continental Free Trade rages on, Infoprations
has discovered that Africans want their leaders to be visionary in their
approaches towards the initiative and ease problems preventing effective
collaboration and free movement of people.
These insights were gained from the
Rockefeller Foundation’s Post. The post asked that Africans should tell
their leaders what would be the most important outcome of the #AfricaFreeTradeAgreement. “In partnership with the
Africa Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, we want to hear from you,”
the foundation added.
The analysis further reveals that
Africans want their leaders to use local knowledge, utilise African resources,
especially raw materials judiciously. Beyond these, having a single currency
for the continent would remove currency barrier and enhance trade activities
among the countries. A majority believes that Africa needs her own currency to
reduce overdependence on foreign currencies such as dollar and pound for
intra-African trading.
Despite the challenges, Africans believe
that the Free Trade Agreement would lead to improved economy, more jobs and an
improved standard of living across the continent. “The outcomes will be
increased trade among Africa partner states, the removal of tariff barriers,
increased investment, greater cohesion and implementation of the all Africa Passport
Scheme,” Peter Sunday Nyarwa noted.
Nigeria’s
Industry, Trade and Investment Minister, Mr. Okechukwu E. Enelamah, also
believes that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has huge
potential to move Africa to dizzy heights of development on the platform of the
African Union’s Agenda 2063.
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