Wamkele Mene:AfCFTA great start for integrated Africa

Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area AFCFTA,Wamkele Mene gave credit to Egypt’s leadership of President Abdel Fattah e-Sisi

Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area AFCFTA, Wamkele Mene gave credit to Egypt’s leadership of President Abdel Fattah e-Sisi for remarkable progress in Egypt due to the overall reforms he made during his tenure and the free trade agreement signed in March 2018 during his chairpersonship of the African Union, which has a great positive impact on the industrial and agricultural sectors in African countries which will get the best use of their potential via a common market.

In the light of launching officially the African continental agreement at the outset of 2021, he stressed during an exclusive interview on (The Daily Debate) the paramount importance of boosting infra-African investment through reducing barriers to trade. He lauded the African countries which proved successful in reconciling 55 different economies in less than 5 years to agree and observe a set of rules for trade and investment, he added, acknowledging it as the most difficult exercise to pass by.

As the Young South African diplomat to drive AFCFTA’s implementation, he reassured that Sisi came to make dreams come true after decades of seeking an integrated African market aiming at one objective. The first of January 2021 comes to put the vision into effect, he said, reaffirming that Egypt plays a great role in sharing experience and expertise.

In that regard, he paid tribute to Sisi for his willingness to provide technical support to the secretariat in order to secure great implementation. Mene also praised Mohammad Ali the first Egyptian director of trade and goods in the secretariat to start his work on 15th of February. Underlining Egypt’s keenness to integrate into Africa, he admitted that Egypt was one of the first countries, such as Rwanda and Ghana, signing and ratifying the agreement, adding that the current phase of implementation of the agreement is due to witness a concrete exchange of goods within the continent.

Speaking about the main pillars for success in that agreement to abide by in an inclusive manner, he referred to empowerment of women and young entrepreneurs in trade, and promotion of small and medium enterprises. On Youth empowerment, Mene touched upon practical procedures with African commercial banks to capitalize on young Africans with trade finance facilities initially to the tune of one billion dollar and that will be done by efficient convertibility of currency exchange among the African countries. 

Commenting on the daunting challenges due to COVID-19, he also emphasized on the necessity of industrial development, self-sufficiency in Africa’s productive capacity and flexible patents regime in addition to the continent’s intellectual property regime which has to cater to the needs of the African peoples. According to his part, creating a regional value chain in the field of automobiles is of great importance. He is optimistic that intra-Africa investors are able to compete in the global market.

“Suez Canal Economic Zone is absolutely fantastic”, Mene asserted, saying it should replicate across the continent. He highlighted that being a gateway to the African and Middle Eastern markets, Egypt is a pioneer in infrastructure because of interconnectivity with ports and road networks as linkages from Cairo to Dakar and from Cairo to Cape Town. Hence, he added that the smart cities are accessible to all Africans to visit and stressed the significance of digital technology for growth and trade on the African continent.

(The Daily Debate) is aired on Nile TV International on Sunday-Thursday. This episode is presented by the Head of the channel Taghreed Hussein.