First Independent Mena Newspaper
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is on track, but more efforts are needed, experts say, as presently intra-Africa trade stands low at just 14.4% of total African exports. A low intra-continental, as well as global trade pattern by African countries, has mainly been attributed to a lack of adequate infrastructure, climate change, structural […]
The implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is likely to increase the volume of intra-African trade from the current 16% to over 40% by 2045. However, to reach this goal, African countries should promote the free movement of people across their borders to boost intra-African trade, says Stephen Karingi, director at the […]
East Africa is set to benefit from swift implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), according to the World Bank, and this will be accomplished particularly by lowering trade expenses related to trade facilitation, as well as decreasing the costs of non-tariff policies and non-tariff obstacles. The AfCFTA has been well-designed to strengthen […]
While Africa claims top three spots in Mastercard Index for highest concentration of women business owners in the world, a great majority of females on the continent are still struggling with gender biases in their every-day lives. Women leaders from across Africa attending a recent first International Conference on Women’s Transformational Leadership, in Juba, South […]
African leaders will hold a summit on Saturday and Sunday at the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa with the aim of accelerating the implementation of the continental free trade area (AfCFTA). The summit, the 36th of the organization, will bring together 35 Presidents and 4 Prime Ministers. The officials will ponder […]
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) market has been a long time coming, but several African nations and major companies have finally started shipping goods and trading a trickle of goods under the AfCFTA agreement signed in 2018. Tanzania is one of the African countries that have decided to take part in a new […]
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Afreximbank have announced the development of the African Trade Exchange Platform (ATEX), a digital business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) tool to help boost intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). A statement by the ECA on Friday (27 January) also noted that the ATEX platform […]
With numerous external and internal headwinds, it is easy to be pessimistic about Africa’s prospects, yet, time and time again Africa has proved resilient and hence also in 2023 many African countries will continue to fare well, despite the odds, says an annual report launched by Brookings Institute launched on Monday (30 January). Since the […]
The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) must aim at reversing the unsustainable trend of excessive dependence by many of its members on imports of basic commodities, such as food and strategic agricultural inputs that has only exacerbated their vulnerabilities. This is the main message from a recent webinar organized by the UN Food and […]
More than 200 African women entrepreneurs from 35 countries meeting in Cameroon’s capital have called for more support from lenders and governments to help them benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). During the second meeting for the United Nations-sponsored African Women Entrepreneurs Forum held under the theme, “Female Entrepreneurs, Challenges and Opportunities,” […]