AfCFTA Update: Accelerating Africa’s Development Agenda in 2024

By Mark-Anthony Johnson

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a central initiative within the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which is a strategic framework aimed at achieving inclusive and sustainable development across Africa over the next 50 years. The AfCFTA seeks to enhance intra-African trade through a comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement among member states, encompassing trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights, and competition policy.

The Agreement became effective on May 30, 2019, for the 24 countries that had submitted their instruments to the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson, who is the official depository for the agreement.

The AfCFTA Secretariat, responsible for various implementation tasks, is based in Ghana. Wamkele Mene was appointed as the first Secretary-General of the Secretariat on March 19, 2020, and is currently serving his second term. The AfCFTA Secretariat was officially inaugurated in Accra, Ghana, on August 17, 2020.

Trading under the AfCFTA Agreement commenced on January 1, 2021.

As of January 2024, Rules of Origin have been agreed upon for 92.3 percent of total tariff lines, and the Pan-African Payments and Settlements System (PAPSS) has been officially launched.

On October 7, 2022, the AfCFTA Secretariat launched the AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative (GTI) in Accra to facilitate meaningful trade under the Agreement for eight participating countries: Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Tunisia, representing the five regions of Africa. This initiative serves as a pilot for the operational, institutional, legal, and trade policy environment under the AfCFTA.

In 2024, the GTI was expanded to include more products and countries across the five African regions and Island States, with a total of thirty-five (35) State Parties expressing interest in or joining the initiative.

As of August 2024, 47 out of 54 signatories (85.2 percent) have deposited their instruments of AfCFTA ratification with the AUC Chairperson.

Eritrea remains the only country yet to sign the AfCFTA agreement. Liberia is poised to ratify the agreement, while Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Gabon are currently suspended from the African Union.