Mombasa, 22 March 2020 (ECA) – The Kenya State Department for Trade, in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), is organizing a four-day meeting from 23 to 26 March to review the country’s African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation strategy.
About 50 experts, including government officials, trade economists, academia, development partners, youth and women’s representatives, are expected to participate in the meeting holding in Mombasa, Kenya.
Ms Gladys Kinyuah, the Deputy Director for International Trade in the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development, said the government was already taking steps towards implementing the agreement by taking into consideration the recommendations of the private sector.
Ms Mama Keita, Director of ECA in Eastern Africa, said not only will the AfCFTA boost Kenya’s trade with other African partners, but it will also improve its prospects for diversification by increasing the demand for manufactured goods.
This meeting is one of the key actions of the European Union-funded project: ‘Deepening Africa’s Trade Integration through Effective Implementation of the AfCFTA to support Economic Integration’.
Kenya is one of the 36 countries that have ratified the agreement, which provides an opportunity for Africa to create the world's largest free trade area with the potential to unite more than 1.2 billion people in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development.
The AfCFTA has the potential to generate a range of benefits through supporting trade creation, structural transformation, productive employment and poverty reduction. It will also constitute a significant milestone towards the realization of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 for the socio-economic transformation of the continent.
The ECA has been working with the African Union Commission (AUC) and member states of the AU to deepen Africa's trade integration and effectively implement the agreement through policy advocacy and national strategy development.
The ECA, through its African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC), works with the International Trade Centre (ITC), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and independent trade experts with the financial support of the European Union (EU) to assist with the implementation of the agreement.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org