African Continental Free Trade Agreement Implications of this to British businesses
African Continental Free Trade Agreement is now a reality.
Twelve countries, including South Africa, have finalised their legal modalities to enable trade to commence in thousands of products lines, ranging from food and beverages to steel products and equipment, taxis, pharmaceutical and personal care products, chemical products, and household goods such as fridges and televisions.
On 31st January 2024, South Africa shipped its first consignment of good to neighbouring Africa countries under the AfCFTA. With that, South Africa has joined eight other countries that started the AfCFTA guided trade initiative in 2022. These include Tunisia, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
Again, Africa is on the pathway to become the second fastest- growing major region globally in the year 2024 with average GDP growth of up to 3.5% according to the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2024. Six sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries – the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Senegal, Niger Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Côte d'Ivoire are also expected to be among the top 10 fastest-growing economies in 2024.
It is a new era of possibilities for African trade as AfCFTA is the largest free trade area since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), considering the number of participating countries, it brings together 8 Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and 55 member countries of the African Union.
What are the implications of this to British businesses?
Join our webinar on Thursday 11 April 2024, 11am-12pm where Francis Anatogu, will be leading the conversation.
Booking is now closed: Please contact [email protected] if you would like to be added.
Speakers
Francis Anatogu
Francis is a business executive and change driver with extensive strategic leadership experience and a track record of successful delivery of complex policy and business improvement programs in energy, telecoms, professional services and international trade development sectors.
He is the Chief Executive at Transaharan Limited, a business advisory and services company focused on supporting businesses to expand into international markets.
He was the pioneer Executive Secretary of Nigeria’s National Action Committee on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). In that role, he coordinated the establishment of the organization and national strategy for Nigeria’s implementation of the AfCFTA.
As the Secretary of the Presidential Committee, he led the impact and readiness assessment and stakeholder engagements that resulted in Nigeria joining the African Continental Free Trade Area. He was also a member of the manufacturing and industrialisation technical working group established for the preparation of Nigeria’s National Development Plan 2021-2025.
Prior to joining the public sector, he had extensive consulting experience, working with Accenture and Deloitte, and advising international energy and telecoms companies on strategy, local content development, business continuity, operations readiness and improvement, and project management.
Francis started his career at Shell and Schlumberger developing concepts for energy assets development, planning long-term production and infrastructure development, and assessing uncertainties in major investments.
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and an MBA from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
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