The Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, has asserted that the mission of the organisation would not be realised without digital inclusion.
He suggested digital inclusion is crucial for leveraging the vast market potential represented by Africa’s 1.4 billion population, projected to become one of the world’s largest economies by 2050.
The AfCFTA was approved by the 18th ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2012, which adopted the decision to establish an African Continental Free Trade Area and the Action Plan for Boosting Intra-African Trade as key initiatives whose implementation would promote socio-economic growth and development.
The AfCFTA aims at accelerating intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by strengthening Africa’s common voice and policy space in global trade negotiations.
But speaking at the 3i Africa Summit held at the Accra International Conference Centre on May 13, 2024, Wamkele Mene stressed that without the deployment of digital technologies, this objective may not be realised.
“But if we don’t deploy these digital technologies that all of us are going to be discussing today and tomorrow, I don’t think that we will reach that objective. I want to thank all of you very much for the opportunity to share with you what our heads of state have instructed me to do, which is to implement the protocol on digital trade,” he said.
The event is bringing together key players in the financial, investment, policy-regulatory, and digital technology domains in Africa.
The three-day event will afford participants an opportunity to engage in over 15 sessions with speakers and discussants contributing to over 60 topics aimed at finding the pathways that deliver the most traction in the drive to generate momentum and achieve progress.
He urged African leaders to establish protocols for digital trade.
He said there was a need to create opportunities for millions of young Africans, placing small and medium-scale enterprises at the forefront of Africa’s economy.
“To create opportunities for millions and millions and millions of young Africans to place small, medium-scale enterprises in the centre of Africa’s economy and to catapult our continent to global competitiveness, which is the preeminent objective of the Assembly of Heads of State and government that we have,” he said.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
