The African Continental Free Trade Area agreement presents African states with the opportunity to collectively grow their economies in an unprecedented manner. With the lack of steam in the implementation of the AfCFTA, how can Africa achieve the agreement’s potential for pan-African economic growth and development?
Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, Pan-African Dreams. Buy the issue here.
In recent decades, pan-Africanism has assumed a different dimension. Its core point has evolved from the endeavour to stamp out Western hegemony and colonial subjugation, to the conscious undertaking to foster cooperation amongst African states and Africans for the advancement of the collective growth of the continent across different spheres of life. It is in furtherance of this undertaking that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was birthed in 2018 under the aegis of the African Union (AU), to facilitate the economic integration of Africa.
The prospect of the AfCFTA easing economic mobility across the continent spurred many African states to sign the agreement. More so, in 2020, the World Bank projected that the AfCFTA has the potential of accruing a seven per cent gain of about $450 billion worth of income boost in Africa by the year 2035. In the same vein, the implementation of the trade agreement was expected to contribute to the elimination of poverty in several African states...
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