Freight trains at the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway station in Nairobi, November 2021. Dubai (CNN Business)2021 was a historic year for Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA ) came into effect, having been signed by 54 of the continent’s nations.
More than a year on, governments are now working to facilitate trade by removing tariffs on thousands of products across Africa.
Kenya, Africa’s sixth-largest economy, hopes that the deal will cement the country’s position as a regional commercial hub and trade center. Speaking to CNN Business last month at Expo 2020 Dubai, Betty Maina, Kenya’s Minister of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development, says the private sector’s involvement in the trade agreement can help the country achieve that goal. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The AfCFTA was implemented on January 1, 2021. How has it gone so far?
Maina: The realization of the AfCFTA is a journey. Sellers need to identify buyers, and once they identify buyers, they also need to establish how they will get payments. And you also need to be able to deliver the goods. The challenges of infrastructure in Africa means that it is difficult.
It’s easy for Kenya to trade with Uganda and Rwanda because we have road connections, but to get goods from Kenya to Nigeria requires us to use the sea, because we don’t have a road. But [the AfCFTA] shows that there are structures in place to start trading within Africa as we finalize the modalities.
You talk about infrastructure — that’s a huge area where more needs to be done. What are countries doing to be sure that buyers and sellers have the right ecosystems?
Maina: Market-access instruments, the removal of tariffs is the first policy. The second policy — that we’ve all worked on in East Africa — is on harmonization of standards. The third policy of the framework is on trade: facilitation and customs clearance are also critical for ensuring our passage of goods. Kenya Airways converted two 787 Dreamliners to carry cargo. Here’s why What we now require is greater participation by the private sector to identify partners in each of the other countries. Because once they have identified partners, we will establish if there are any shortcomings in the policy framework. The African market is huge. It’s important that we work to remove any barriers, not just tariffs.
As Trade and […]
