Secretary-General of the AFCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, calls for enhanced infrastructure that will get landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) to participate actively in the single continental market.
To achieve this, he says the Secretariat will work with national governments and development finance institutions to build the right infrastructure for cross-border trade.
There is an infrastructure issue. The Port of Tema and Lome support landlocked countries, West Africa, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, so the efficiency of these ports is important.
Similarly, Southern Africa, Central Africa, and Angola are also critical for DRC, Malawi, Zambia and for other landlocked countries; so, establishing the infrastructure to support the trade corridors is very important,” he tells Single African Market.
“The Afreximbank has invested close to $50 billion in infrastructure development in Africa with a strong focus on trade supporting infrastructure. This is really critical for landlocked countries,” he says.
The AfCFTA boss hinted at the plans of a development finance institution to build a railway line to connect Angola, DRC, Zambia and Tanzania to trade whilst Egypt is also investing in over 12,000 kilometres of a trade corridor that will connect North Africa and Southern Africa.
“We need more of these types of investments and we have to complement these with soft infrastructure,” Mr. Mene stresses.
Aside from physical infrastructure, Wamkele Mene also points out the relevance of soft infrastructure which includes a centralized payment and settlement system that will promote seamless and low-cost transit of goods.
“We want to reduce reliance on third countries when we are trading in Africa. And so, with the rollout of the payments and settlement system, you will be in Accra and will be able to trade with somebody in Kenya, and you will be using Ghanaian cedi, local currency and they will also be doing the same thing they will be trading with you in Kenyan shillings.
So, we need complementarities of hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure to boost and enhance trade in Africa,” he further explains.
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