Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 14 April 2025- The Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, H.E. Wamkele Mene, participated in a Ministerial Panel on “Human Capabilities as an Economic Catalyst” at the Human Capability Initiative 2025 held in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In his intervention, the Secretary General emphasised that Africa’s economic transformation is fundamentally dependent on investment in human capital. He highlighted that the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol is a key instrument in building a technology-driven economy anchored on skills, innovation, and knowledge.

He further underlined that industrialisation, the development of regional value chains, and job creation all require a skilled and mobile workforce. Human capital, he stressed, is the cornerstone for achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth across the continent.