Yaounde, March 6, 2025 (ECA) – The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) chief negotiators from Central African countries, national experts, economic operators and academia are calling for a new impetus of the sub-region in the AfCFTA implementation based on the lessons learned from the Guided Trade Initiative.
As a prelude to the 57th session of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (COM2025) on the theme “Promoting implementation of the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area: Proposing transformative strategic actions”, the Economic Commission for Africa Sub-Regional Office for Central Africa (ECA SRO CA) brought together stakeholders from the region to share best practices and boost AfCFTA implementation.
The consultation revealed that most countries have completed the technical prerequisites, such as notifying tariff offers to the AfCFTA Secretariat. Nevertheless, countries still need to internalise them and so far, only Cameroon has incorporated its tariff offers for trade in goods and services into its national legal corpus. This has facilitated Cameroon's trade (imports and exports) under the guided trade initiative.
Shared experiences also showed that Central African countries are facing common challenges: supporting economic operators to trade on the market through trade relays; mobilizing the stakeholders in the implementation of the Agreement within the national AfCFTA monitoring committee and ensuring its effective functioning; setting up a mechanism to provide reliable trade information; and strengthening quality infrastructure for product certification and market access assurance.
Parfait Eppoh, chief negotiator and focal point of Cameroon's AfCFTA national monitoring committee suggested that to overcome these constraints there is need for the sharing of experiences between countries, enabling mutual learning and the exchange of best practices. He indicated that, “the 6 countries of the CEMAC customs union have submitted joint tariffs offers. This working experience can be consolidated in the context of pooling efforts for effective trade in the AfCFTA,”
Etienne Cham, coordinator of Cameroon's guided trade initiative sub-committee further noted that, “Cameroon National Shippers’ Council (CNSC), in charge of implementing the guided trade initiative, is working with other national organizations in the sub-region in charge of shippers to share its experience in identifying companies, training economic operators and supporting them towards effective trade in the AfCFTA”.
Narcisse Chassem, Executive Director of GECAM, Cameroon's employers' association called for structural changes saying that, “production constraints are common to the sub-region. We urgently need to increase manufacturing products through opening up of production basins, the supply of stable, less expensive energy and the establishment of a guarantee mechanism for business financing”.
Ntap Ekoue, Managing Director of Sweet Choco further underscored that, “we have forged business partnerships with African companies within the framework of AfCFTA. However, Central Africa has still not adopted the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS). We call on the leadership of ECA to ensure that central banks in the sub-region make this mechanism available, so that foreign exchange transactions do not incur additional costs for trade”.
ECA is working in close collaboration with member states and regional economic communities (RECs) to ensure that implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement contributes to achieving the United Nations' 2030 Agenda and the African Union's Agenda 2063.
In his closing remarks Adama Ekberg Coulibaly, Chief of the Sub-regional Initiatives Section, ECA-SRO-CA assured participants that member states have their AfCFTA national implementation strategies and the corresponding action plans and the sub-region also has a regional strategy for implementing the agreement, which was validated and adopted in 2023. “These strategic documents have been developed to guide member states strategically in their efforts to take full advantage of the African single market”.
Zacharie Roger MBARGA - Communications Officer
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
637, rue 3.069, Quartier du Lac, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Tel: (+237) 222504348
E-mail: zacharie.mbargayene@un.org
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
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Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
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