This archive report was first published on 12 May 2020.
Published on May 12, 2020, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has been touted as a potential solution to help African economies recover from the devastating impact of COVID-19.
Stephen Karingi, Director of Regional Integration and Trade at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), believes that boosting intra-African trade can serve as an alternative stimulus package for job creation, foreign exchange, industrial development, and economic growth.
According to Karingi, if Africa had implemented agreements and frameworks such as the AfCFTA, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa, and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, African economies would have been more diversified, stronger, and less affected by COVID-19.
However, Karingi noted that COVID-19 has proven that African countries can adapt and respond to demand, emphasizing the need to maintain the AfCFTA momentum and ambition that existed before COVID-19.
David Luke, Coordinator of the African Trade Policy Centre, reiterated the need for Africa to diversify its sources of supply chain, stating, “even developed countries that depended on only one or two countries for critical parts of their supply chain are now talking about localising production.”
He noted that COVID-19 has shed light on the underdeveloped status of African supply and value chains and that supply chain diversification fits very well into the industrialisation agenda that Africa already has.
