Wamkele Mene, the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, has urged President Akufo-Addo to allow hosting and convening of meetings between the secretariat and council of ministers responsible for trade.
According to him, the meeting will augment the finalization of all deliberations needed for the smooth take off of the AfCFTA in January 2021.
Addressing the diplomatic community, he insisted the move is critical in order to ensure that the outstanding negotiations on rules of origin and market access are completed and the instruments widely publicized to enable stakeholders plan their investments.
“We will be hosting Ministers here in Accra on a regular basis, and one of the things that I discussed with the President of the nation is that if the health protocols allow then we should convene a meeting of the council of ministers responsible for trade sometime in November.
“I encouraged the President to consider the proposal that I made to the government of Ghana to host a meeting of the council of ministers responsible for trade in the middle of November which will be the first meeting that takes place since the secretariat was established here in Ghana”.
Meanwhile, Wamkele Mene has indicated interest shown by e-commerce giants, Google and Amazon, on possible investment with the Secretariat in AfCFTA.
He however intimated that discussions on the matter are yet to be finalized and the necessary regulatory framework put in place, which will be used for the digital trade aspect of AfCFTA.
The Secretary General further noted that requisite steps would be taken to ensure AfCFTA operates on a good digital platform.
“We have an opportunity with the African Continental Free Trade Agreement as we implemented to negotiate a digital trade e-commerce protocol per the agreement that will set the regulatory framework for e-commerce to take place in Africa for digital trade and in this regard we have already been approached by Google and Amazon who are interested in investing where, of course, we establish the right regulatory framework to invest in data storage centers on the African continent.”
AfCFTA, which is scheduled to take off in January 2021, is a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business people and investments, to accelerate the establishment of the Continental Customs Union and the African Customs Union.
It is also expected to increase the volume of trade within the continent by US 35billion annually by 2022.
The target market for the AfCFTA is projected to rise from an estimated 1.27 billion to 1.7 billion by 2030, out of which about 600 million will be in the middle class.
In terms of aggregate Gross Domestic Product (GDP), this will range from $2.1 trillion to $3.4 trillion.
For investments and consumer spending, the AfCFTA is expected to attract an estimated $4 trillion.
