Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) have been urged to collaborate closely with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in order to remove trade obstacles.
This request was made by Wamkele Mene, the Secretary General of the AfCFTA, in a statement to the 2023 Regional Integration Issues Forum (RIIF) in Accra, Ghana.
Mene outlined the significance of the AfCFTA to MSMEs while being represented by Silver Ojakol, Chief of Staff of the AfCFTA Secretariat, emphasizing that large companies are not the target audience for the deal.
With assistance from Afreximbank, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), and the Centre for Regional Integration in Africa (CRIA) and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) jointly organized the event.
According to a statement released by the organizers, Mene stated: “The agreement was designed and framed for the women and youths who daily face challenges when crossing borders to trade in goods and services across the continent.”
“We would earn $70 billion if African countries united and increased trade among themselves by just 1%, surpassing the $58 billion provided by donors as development assistance.”
Africa has the youngest population, according to Professor Samuel Bonsu, Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Affairs (GIMPA), who also emphasized that the need for intra-African commerce to convert resources into higher value could not have arrived at a better moment.
According to the statement, the RIIF serves as a platform for interface and a vehicle for raising awareness among parties interested in projects related to continental commerce and regional integration.
The 2023 RIIF aims to boost SMEs’ ability to participate in intra-African trade and raise knowledge of the AfCFTA and its advantages for SMEs.
The focus of the two-day SME conference was “accelerating the AfCFTA by breaking business barriers.”
More than 150 people attended the conference from all around Africa, including academics, corporate executives, government officials, and representatives of civil society.
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