AfCTA Sec-Gen urges Africa to implement protocol on digital trade

The Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, has said that for Africa to achieve a multi-million dollar digital economy by 2035, it must implement the “protocol on digital trade”.

Speaking at a round table in Abuja, Mene said, “In this regard, we have agreed to work together to mobilise investment in Africa’s digital economy.

“The protocol on digital trade is the first of its kind around the world. It will be the first time that we as Africans will be creating a single digital economy, a single digital market, marketplace for a range of different investors, including FinTech, the creative industries,” Mene said.

“In the protocol, we have made a number of commitments. I’ll mention just a few, establishing an inclusive environment for SMEs to be part of Africa’s digital economy. So, digital and financial inclusion is a very, very important objective in that project.

“We have agreed that there shall no longer be prohibitions on the movement of data between countries, something that constrains our capability and continent to be competitive.

“The ability for us to commercialise, move, allow our companies to move data around the continent will enable us to be more competitive, not only for the establishment of digital infrastructure but more importantly, to create opportunities for young people, who all of us know is already at the cutting edge of digital innovation in Africa’s economy.”

He disclosed that it is expected that by 2050, Africa would have a combined GDP of 16 point $3 trillion but the continent must build a single market to be able to achieve global competitiveness.

Wamkele said: “If we do not build a single market, we are not going to be competitive as a continent, and no country in Africa alone will be able to achieve global competitiveness. We have to consolidate and create a single African market, movement of goods, movement of persons, and movement of capital.”

The AfCFTA Secretary-General said that the objectives to achieve a single market had been encapsulated in the “Abuja Treaty” despite the challenges of cost of infrastructure, cost of transport and logistics and customs procedures that may prohibit efficient transportation of goods.

“We recognise that all of these challenges are going to be there, and they’ll be there for some time, but the good news is that we now have a legal instrument that provides the basis for us to solve all of these problems and to ensure that we are a globally competitive continent that feeds itself, that produces foods in Africa, that creates opportunities for young people.”

According to him, If we continue to be fragmented as a continent, we will not be able to see the results of the potential that all of us recognise we have. I don’t know about you, but I am certainly tired of saying that in Africa, we have potential.

“We must translate this potential into opportunities, immediate opportunities for young people. We cannot be a continent of potential forever. We must translate the potential.”

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, stressed the need for accelerated implementation of the protocol on digital trade, adding that the pilot implementation had begun.

She recalled that when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was in South Africa last year, he made it known that Nigeria, under him would champion digital trade in Africa and the world.