On Monday, 17th August,2020, the president commissioned and handed over the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA ) Secretariat to the African Union (AU).
I must say it was a very significant symbolism of the role Ghana has to play in the African Union . Kudos to the President and the Minister of Trade and Industry for the successful lobbying and further getting the nod to host the secretariat.
The 22- country threshold in conformity with the legal provisions was reached on 29th April, 2019 when Sierra Leone and Saharawi Republic deposited their instruments of ratification with the depository. Although the biggest economy in Africa i.e. Nigeria is yet to ratify it, it has been ratified by 30 out of the 54 AU member states who signed the agreement and it makes it the largest free trade area ( in terms of the number of participating countries)in the world since the establishment of the World Trade Organisation.
However, I personally think the impact of the AfCFTA has either been underestimated or misunderstood by Ghanaians and Africans as a whole . This agreement creates a market for about 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion.
Our businessmen and entrepreneurs should be leading this discussion as to how this very awesome agreement on paper could be successfully executed. But there seem to be another reality on grounds.
After going through the document that guides the African Continental Free Trade Agreement , I am elated that one of the visions of the founders of the African Union is gradually coming to fruition; “Develop and promote common policies on trade “.
Of course, trading among ourselves is one sure way of eliminating the poverty that has stretched its overbearing hands on Africa.
However , in the course of my excitement, I paused to have a retrospective view of similar projects that have been initiated by the various regional blocs yet haven’t lived up to their expectations.
Read also: AU commissions AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra
I narrowed it down to our own ECOWAS; what happened to the plan of the Ecowas having a common currency (Eco) to facilitate trade and industry?
In line of that; I do ask these questions
1.Is the AfCFTA also not going to be just another promising project with a Secretariat and a policy document?
2. How many businessmen or entrepreneurs are even aware of such an agreement.
3. Has the secretariat made any extensive consultation among the various member immigration offices and develop a protocol as to how goods will move around without much difficulty at the various borders ?
4. Do the citizens who are the major stakeholders understand the opportunities that come along with this agreement?
After asking these questions, I placed a call to a senior officer in one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Ghana and simply asked him of his awareness of such an economic agreement and he simply said no.
Well, that is where I concluded that Africans might lose out on this great opportunity again. By the time that we may realize, our white brothers would come down set up factories and businesses in Africa just to take advantage of this opportunity.
For example, the Tema Free Zones was established so our entrepreneurs could take advantage and do more exports with the enormous tax reliefs that come with it. However, it’s a different situation there now because about 90% of the industries there are owned by foreigners. What happened?
We were not just aware or just didn’t take advantage of it.
May we take full advantage of this symbolic agreement as it start being operationalized in January 2021.
The author, Justice Otibu Darko, is a political commentator and someone who believes so much in Pan Africanism