The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and the African Development Bank’s African Development Fund on Monday, 25 July 2022 signed a Protocol of Agreement to formalise their shared commitment towards the effective implementation for the AfCFTA Agreement.
The Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, His Excellency Wamkele Mene and the African Development Bank’s Acting Vice President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery, signed the Protocol of Agreement for the grant of $11.24 million for AfCFTA implementation at the margins of the 9th Meeting of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers Responsible for Trade in Accra – Ghana. H.E. Wamkele Mene said: “We welcome the support of the Bank as this is a clear indication of our strategic partnership that will strengthen the capacity of the Secretariat and facilitate the start of commercially meaningful trade under the AfCFTA preferences. The COVID-19 pandemic and the current geopolitical tensions have created an ethos of urgent collective action for the implementation of the AfCFTA. We all have a shared responsibility to change the destinies of all Africans as we achieve the laudable objective of the AfCFTA.”
“The African Development Bank is proud of the strong partnership with the AfCFTA Secretariat and confident that this institutional support will enable our respective mandates to spur greater continental trade and economic transformation, in line with Agenda 2063’s vision of the Africa we want,” Mrs. Yacine Fal, Acting Vice President of Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery said. “Africa’s hope for building back strong and better lies with the successful implementation of the AfCFTA.”
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About the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want and entered into force on 30 May 2019. It is a high ambition trade agreement, which aims to bring together all 55 member states of the African Union, covering a market of more than 1.3 billion people, with a comprehensive scope that includes critical areas of Africa’s economy, such as digital trade and investment protection, amongst other areas. By eliminating barriers to trade in Africa, the objective of the AfCFTA is to significantly boost intra-Africa trade, particularly trade in value-added production and trade across all services sectors of Africa’s economy, at a potential of 52.3 percent.
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About the African Development Bank (AfDB)
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 44 African countries with an external office in Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states.
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