An Economist, Prof. Godwin Bokpin has disclosed that there’s a lot more work to be done to ensure the free trade creates more sustainable jobs. According to him it is time for Africa to practicalize the benefits of the AfCFTA.
He explains that, this will define the terms of whether the move will create decent jobs for the youth in Africa.
“By academics, industry practitioners, lawyers, business people and the youth. But much of what has been talked about represents intentions. We have hypothesized gains from the AfCFTA but there’s a lot of work to be done to explain and translate this theoretical or hypothesized benefits of gains into actual [and] in a manner that creates decent and sustainable jobs for Africa; that is considered a young continent with more youths than any other continent.
“Translating the theoretical benefits into actual must tackle inequality and limit the poverty of opportunities on the continent that also fuels migration, insecurity and anxiety. For the Ghanaian businesses, how do we leverage on the AfCFTA with the combined GDP in excess of two trillion dollars in a combined population of over 1.2 billion which is projected to hit 1.4 billion by 2024”.
Expectations for budget presentation
Prof. Bokpin also urged government to be moderate in its expectations to ensure hopes are not dashed ahead of the budget reading today, Friday March 12.
“We have to be moderate with our expectations because COVID has done a lot of havoc to our economy [although] we are not alone… but broadly the impact is very invasive. To that extent, in the presence of a higher expenditure, a new expenditure pattern has been met, that has to be maintained. There’s the need for government to look at macro framework in order not to throw it overboard and create instability. To that extent, I would urge that we are a bit cautious in terms of our expectations. Of course, we could get disappointed anyway because budget at its baseline represents intentions, we cannot substitute that as accomplishment.
He insisted that beyond the presentation of the budget, that is where work starts.
“How do we convert all the expectations and projections into actual and a;; that? Just look at what happened in 2020, a couple of months before… we were very hopeful, the assumptions were there, we’ll grow GDP… three months into the implementation of the budget, COVID hit”.
Experts call for participation of youth
Similarly, 60 per cent of Africa’s population is under the age of 25, making Africa the world’s youngest continent.
While a main goal of AfCFTA is a dramatic increase in intra-African trade, Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa, described the current intra-trade level of 18 per cent “an indictment.”
According to her, one of the consequences of such low-level intra-African trade is a loss of good-paying jobs
She maintains that women must be deeply engaged in cross-border trade. They must have access to finance, production network, and markets. The UNDP, Ms. Eziakonwa added, was working to help women access virtual markets and participate in e-commerce.
Godwin Benson, CEO of Tuteria, an online learning platform in Nigeria, explains his limited success in expanding his business into other markets on the continent and provides a to-do list to improve trade in services across borders.
He insists that first is the need to understand the “needs and nuances of other African markets” so that products and services are better tailored to consumers in various countries. Second is the need to engage in strategic partnerships to facilitate access to foreign markets.
