By ANWAR HUSSEN MOHAMMED – In order to implement African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Mr. Antonio Pedro at the Committee of Experts of the 2025 Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) urges African countries to ease movement of Africans across borders within the continent.
He made the remark this morning at opening of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development (COM2025) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this morning. “Moving forward, as we implement the AfCFTA Agreement at the level of each of its State Parties, we must also work on all the other associated bottlenecks that hold us back, some of which we have full control of, for they depend only on our political will to act. For example, the ease with which Africans can move across borders within the continent plays an important role in the effort to realize the benefits of the AfCFTA to the full,” he said.
“Yet, the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons that was adopted in January 2018 remains with just four ratifications to this day. Indeed, the fourth and so far, the last ratification, by Niger, took place on 5 July 2019. This is not acceptable!”
“With compelling evidence-based analysis, we must dispel the fears that are impeding us from acting. That is what we did to secure record ratifications of the Agreement establishing the AfCFTA! We can do the same for the ratification of all the protocols that are key to the successful implementation of the Agreement, including the Protocols on Investment, Competition, and Intellectual Property adopted in February 2023,” he said.
“Beyond the protocols, and to make the AfCFTA work for Africa, we must accelerate the implementation of the 2012 Action Plan for Boosting Intra-Africa Trade (BIAT) in all its cluster areas, namely trade policy, trade facilitation, productive capacity, trade- related infrastructure, trade finance, trade information, and factor market integration. To this end, we must optimize the linkages between infrastructure development and economic opportunities in economic corridors and other platforms of agglomeration.”
“For example, our 2021 trade-decision modelling exercise aimed at assessing Cameroon’s export potential in the AfCFTA market revealed that for Cameroon, DRC is more trade-distant than China and the US, yet the distance from Yaoundé to Kinshasa is just 1,591.6 km while the estimated distance between Yaoundé and Beijing is 10,982 km!”, Mr. Antonio said.
“Another important study we did in 2022 on “Implications of the African Continental Free Trade Area for Demand of Transport Infrastructure and Services” projected that about USD $411 billion in transport equipment will be required because of the AfCFTA, including: USD $4 billion for 135 vessels; USD $25 billion for 243 aircrafts; USD $36 billion for 169,000 rail wagons; and USD $345 billion for over 2.2 million trucks,” he said.
He stated that the investments in railway infrastructure and fleets will result in the percentage of total intra-Africa trade by rail increasing by an estimated 5.5%, from less than 1% today to nearly 7%. “We are encouraged to see that our multilateral development banks are stepping up their efforts and playing a vital role in making Africa investment ready. Our work to support de-risking investments in the continent falls in this category. To achieve transformational change, more is needed! That’s why we are here!”, he said.
He also stated that UNECA’s latest empirical assessment indicates that reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers within the continent as per the agreed AfCFTA modalities could make intra-African trade 45% higher in 2045, compared with a situation without AfCFTA.
“The lion’s share of these anticipated gains is expected to be felt in the agrifood and industrial sectors, thereby offering unprecedented opportunities for Africa’s industrialization and food security, and for the strengthening of product complementarity among our countries. This calls for a tightly knitted trade and industrial policy implementation,” he said.
Though AfCFTA is at the center of COM2025, other related issues and economic affairs of the continent will also be discussed during the week long meeting, according to the information from UNECA.