Following the African Development Bank Group and the African Union Commission, along with Regional Economic Communities (RECs), DFIs, and other institutions, held a high-level technical meeting to craft a collaborative action plan for implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Dr. Chekwoti, Head of Centre, ESAMI-trapca, offered the following insights.
“A coordinated approach to regional integration is an important initiative to unlock AfCFTA opportunities. It is imperative that the proposed AfCFTA implementation plan being initiated by the African Development Bank and African Union Commission needs to factor in capacity building interventions to bridge capacity gaps that will actualise implementation of the AfCFTA. Based on our assessed impact, alumni from ESAMI-trapca are at the heart of the implementation mechanism well equipped with advanced trade expertise at national, regional and continental levels. However, they are so few. What is needed is to scale up the intervention by ESAMI-trapca and increase the number of trade experts needed for implementation. Hope the AfCFTA plan incorporates interventions designed to generate a crop of trade experts with deeper conceptual and analytical trade expertise – the kind that ESAMI-trapca offers.”
At ESAMI-trapca, we are committed to collaborating with like-minded organizations to enhance trade capacity across Africa. Contact us today to explore partnership and collaboration opportunities. Email us at: info@trapca.org