The first permanent secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was commissioned in Accra, Ghana, on August 18, with Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo and Africa Union (AU) Commission chairperson Moussa Mahamat reiterating the importance of the body to the continent’s economic transformation agenda.

“The economic integration of Africa will lay strong foundations for an Africa beyond aid. Africa’s new sense of urgency and aspiration of true self-reliance will be amply demonstrated by today’s ceremony,” said Akufo-Addo.

Mahamat, meanwhile, said the opening of the secretariat marked a milestone in the vision of Africa’s founders for continental integration.

AfCFTA secretary-general Wamkele Mene commented that the AfCFTA agreement offered an opportunity for Africa to confront significant trade and economic development challenges. These challenges include market fragmentation, small national economies, overreliance on primary commodity exports, a narrow export base, a lack of export specialisation, underdeveloped regional value chains and high regulatory and tariff barriers to trade.

“We have to take action now. We have to take action to dismantle the colonial economic model that we inherited.”

The AfCFTA, the world’s largest free trade area, has the potential to transform the continent with its potential market of 1.2-billion people and combined gross domestic product of about $3-trillion across the 54 member States of the AU.

Ghana was selected as the venue for the headquarters by African leaders during a summit of AU heads of State in Niamey in July 2019 to launch the implementation phase of the agreement, which is expected to spur regional trade among member countries.

Currently, 54 States have signed on to the AfCFTA, 28 have ratified the agreement.

Akufo-Addo appealed to member States that have not yet ratified the agreement to do so before the next AU Summit in December, to pave the way for the smooth commencement of trading from January 1, 2021, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic had heightened the importance of the success of the AfCFTA.

“The destruction of global supply chains has reinforced the necessity for closer integration amongst us so that we can boost our mutual self-sufficiency, strengthen our economies and reduce our dependence on external sources.”

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group made a $5-million institutional support grant available to the AU towards the establishment of the AfCFTA secretariat, which is located in an ultramodern office complex in the central business district of the Ghanaian capital.

“The AfDB congratulates the AU/AfCFTA on the investiture of the secretariat hosted by Ghana. The bank is delighted to be associated with this ground-breaking, game-changing, transformational continental initiative in furtherance of the objective to create the Africa we want,” says AfDB private sector, infrastructure and industrialisation VP Solomon Quaynor.