Obasanjo Discloses How AfCTA Benefit Africa Amidst COVID-19

African Presidents have been advised on how to utilise the African continental free trade agreement (AfCFTA) amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 outbreak had disrupted the AfCFTA plans this year, forcing African leaders to extend the commencement of the free trade.

According to the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, the pandemic shouldn't stop the implementation of the free trade which involves 45 African countries, including Nigeria. AfCFTA is a free trade agreement that allows free movement of goods across African countries.

The free trade was supposed to kick-off on July 1, 2020, but it was postponed to January 1, 2021, due to fear of spreading the Coronavirus through trades. But Obasanjo said African countries can mitigate the situation by utilising technology.

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“At the peak of the crisis, an Africa-wide steering committee to manage the crisis (AFTCOR) was instituted and backed up with a common fund mobilised through the continental private sector. Some of our most renowned leaders were appointed as envoys to ensure that Africa speaks with one voice.
 
“And, everywhere, the case was made that the crisis was both the strongest spur and the best opportunity to accelerate the emergence of the single market, through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and thereby increase self-reliance and resilience.

“We are at the most critical juncture of the crisis. Reopening our borders and relaxing lockdown policies in our individual countries requires that we remain vigilant. This is the only way we can ensure that we give our economies a much-needed boost while recovering from the devastation of Covid-19.

“Already, we were constrained by Covid-19 to miss the much anticipated 2020 start of trading under AfCTFA. We cannot afford to miss the new January 2021 date if we are to make any serious progress with economic recovery in this era of Covid-19.

“I believe that a major threat to AfCTFA trading – and indeed general economic activities on our continent – will be a spike in Covid-19 infections due to cross-border movement as we reopen for trade and business. As we have seen elsewhere in the world, technology plays a critical role in helping us deal with this threat.” Obasanjo said in an Article.

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He added that “These smart solutions, often propelled by digital technologies, such as PanaBIOS, to enable cross-border travel without risking a surge of infections; and the others in the AVRIVA framework, designed to allow African governments to cross the January 2021 timeline for the start of trading under AfCFTA by moving all outstanding negotiations online, are urgent and critical. As such, they deserve the full support of the member states.

“Others like TribeID, which aims to transform the capacity of e-Commerce platforms to make African SMEs the beating heart of AfCFTA are of huge structural importance if AfCFTA is to become more than just a piece of paper, another Yamoussoukro Agreement – a deal to open African skies, which has not been fully and properly implemented.

“It is the fervent hope of all Pan-Africanists that this continent shall not “waste this crisis”. That we shall embrace this upcoming reopening to collaborate intensively in order to showcase to the world the ingenuity, grit and foresight with which the African, so often marginalised in the international system, is blessed. The pandemic must be turned to an opportunity to flip the narrative.”