Only 11 countries validated AfCFTA pact — UNECA

Only 11 countries have validated the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement implementation strategies.

This is according to the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Mrs Vera Songwe, who spoke at the 39th session of the Committee of Experts last Wednesday.

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Though the implementation of the agreement has commenced, and some countries have started to trade under the new trade protocol, many others, including Nigeria, are yet to commence trading.

Songwe listed the countries that have validated the agreement as Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Niger, Cameroon, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

While she said seven countries are drafting the pact validation, other countries comprising Nigeria and 10 others are still at the inception stage.

The AfCFTA came into force on January 1 and as at February, 54 of the 55 African Union Member States had signed on to it.

The UNECA head also said 25 countries have signed up for the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) with potential savings equal to 0.71 per cent of the 2019 Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mrs Toki Mabogunju, recently said while the take-off of AfCFTA should be lauded, much work remains to be done as critical parts of the agreement are yet to be finalized.