Association For Strategic Culture and Research Foundation

United States investors are looking forward to exploring several opportunities in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a policy signed by African countries to make the continent a single market.

The AfCFTA aspires to connect all the regions of Africa, to deepen economic integration and to boost intra-African trade and investment. It aspires to create a single market for goods and services across 55 countries and our continent, creating a market of as much as 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion.

Africa is experiencing a flowing tide of solidarity and self-strengthening, and the continent’s influence in international affairs continues to grow. It is now forging ahead with the development of free trade zones, accelerating industrialization and modernization, and heading towards the bright future envisioned in the AU’s Agenda 2063.

Egyptian foreign ministry officials interviewed for this paper describe the last decade of Egypt’s regional positioning as “defensive” in nature as the country contended with domestic issues.

In the aftermath of this development, Ugandan authorities have been consistently insisting on three issues: The grace period is yet to expire and that the Ugandan government is confident of not defaulting on any obligations on repayment; that the terms of the loans are semi-concessional in nature and in line with Uganda’s infrastructure financing programme; and in the interest of transparency, the government has made the loan agreement available to the members of the Parliament.

The question is, are African countries harnessing this potential offered by the AfCFTA?

The potential to increase trade, economic growth, job creation and integration across the continent remains enormous, because today, only around 17% of African trade flows take place between African countries.