Third World Network Africa urges Africans to leverage on AfCFTA

Programmes Manager of Third World Network Africa, Tetteh Hormeku Ajei urges African policy makers to move from rhetoric and commit to the implementation of feasible strategies.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Africa-Wide, he said, “For individual countries to benefit from the AfCFTA, they must have polices in their countries which facilitate production and exports. You can’t actually advance without those policies   and what is likely to happen is that we are going to create a very big market and unfortunately the external force that we are trying to run from will rather dominate the market’” 

According to him, Africa was not fully ready for the AfCTA Agenda since its conception. The siting of the AfCFTA Secretariat in Ghana does not guarantee trade opportunities if government fails to be innovative.

He further said, “When it comes to Ghana and the Secretariat, I think Ghanaians we like to over hype ourselves. I think Ghana rushed to host the Secretariat. Now, hosting it does not necessarily bring anything although it can create a few jobs in the interim. If you really want to benefit from the Secretariat, you would have to look at your policies that promote domestic industries and services so that you can export to other African countries.”

Third World Network Africa is a research and advocacy organization urging African leaders to develop strategies that will move the continent away from the challenges that confronts it by leveraging on the African Continental Free Trade Area.