The African Continental Free Trade Area agreement officially began on January 1, 2021. What have you observed? The AfCFTA is outlined in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, with trade commencing on January 1, 2021. AfCFTA is the largest in the world in terms of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organisation. The agreement was brokered by the African Union and was signed in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 21, 2018. AU member states have continued to show interest in this continental project and, to date, the agreement has been signed by 54 out of 55 member states. There has been a lot of progress since the agreement moved from conception to implementation of a trade area. The organisational structures and operational instruments have been put in place with the nomination of the chief executive officer and other principal officers and the formal opening of the headquarters in Accra, Ghana. The management of AfCFTA has swung into action, reaching out to regional and international partner organisations, as well as sensitising stakeholders about the objectives of the organisation. For example, the secretariat partnered with Future Investment Institute to launch an initiative that will eradicate illicitly traded products from AfCFTA countries, and the cooperation should help countries to reduce disruptive structures that deprive governments revenues through their operations in the informal economies. They are also introducing some initiatives such as the creation of the continental tool/mechanism for monitoring, reporting and elimination of non-tariff barriers to increase the volume of cross-border...

COVID-19 has exacerbated challenges to Africa’s food and agriculture sector and to its millions of smallholder farmers. At the same time, the pandemic has accelerated innovative efforts to develop and deploy the transformative power of digital technology to address these problems in ways that leapfrog past practices and traditional solutions. Emerging evidence from Asia and Africa suggests that digital technology holds promise to dramatically enhance smallholder productivity and incomes by increasing on-farm and off-farm efficiency, enhancing traceability, reducing vulnerability to counterfeit products, and improving farmers’ access to output, input, and financial markets. The change is driven by the introduction of new forms of intermediation and the collection, use, and analysis of massive amounts of agriculture data to disrupt existing business models. New strategic partnerships between the public and private sectors are an essential component for reaping the positive impacts of digital technology and avoiding unintended and unwelcome secondary effects. Digital technology as a transformational force to drive scale Digital technology is transforming the agricultural sector through the application of innovative tools and new business models. For the first time, many people in the value chain, including smallholder farmers, have access to real-time data and computational power making possible more effective selection and timing of product-to-market decisions, provision of credit, and access to micro-insurance. Digitized agriculture data is also creating network effects to drive scale. Coupled with the increasing embrace of the sharing economy, digitization and artificial intelligence make possible new business models and e-commerce platforms that connect farmers directly with markets, service providers, and...

It’s great for governments to do Trade Deals, but making the benefits flow to businesses in the real economy is what will determine if they are successful or not. The Institute of Export & International Trade has inked a partnership with multinational NGO, TradeMark Africa, aimed at doing just that by using digital technology, including distributed ledger or blockchain, to connect buyers and suppliers in Kenya and the UK. The Trade Logistics Information Pipeline, or TLIP, will enable all companies and government agencies in the supply chain to upload and access data simultaneously cutting out wasteful repetition. In supply chains like those for perishable food, think of green beans on the supermarket shelves, that will cut time to market but most importantly it will also cut cost. TLIP is the first example of this kind of initiative between the UK and a developing nation since the UK regained full control of its trade policy at the start of 2021. It builds on the Economic Partnership Agreement, a trade deal, the UK signed with Kenya in March of this year and is a sign of things to come. But it isn’t trade diplomacy that will decide if it succeeds or fails, that will be down to the extend that it is adopted by business, it has to be responsive to business needs and deliver meaningful, measurable improvement. Digital technology is an ever more important piece of the trade picture. We at the IOE&IT welcome the emphasis that the UK has put...

With the headquarters situated in Accra, the capital city of the Republic of Ghana, the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is now attracting a special business focus for both African countries and foreign countries. For foreign countries, it is an opportune time to strengthen bilateral economic cooperation and install joint manufacturing clusters inside Africa. Some African countries are focusing on combining resources to step up production and distribution of high-quality commodities, as under the designed regulations goods and products can circulated across borders without taxes – one of the conditions under the newly established African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). In that direction, Ghana has witnessed unprecedented number of high-powered foreign visitors. Early August, it hosted a huge business forum during the three-day official visit of President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço of Angola. That oil-rich country is located on the west coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking country in both total area and population (behind Brazil), and is the seventh-largest country in Africa. According to official documents, President João Lourenço visited at the invitation of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. It was a reciprocal visit for President Lourenço, as in August 2019, he first invited President Akufo-Addo. During their meeting at the Jubilee House, the seat of the presidency, both leaders expressed the highest desire to strengthen and deepen their bilateral ties between both countries. The agreement signed allows for a consultative mechanism for Ghana and Angola to interact regularly on areas of...

In 2015, the United Nations embraced a global call to action to protect the environment with a robust framework for global sustainable development. This motion birthed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a collection of 17 interwoven global goals carefully designed to balance social, economic, and environmentally sustainable development across the world by 2030. The SDGs or Global goals were developed as a Post-2015 Development Agenda to improve the activities carried out in Millennium Development Goals, which ended in 2015. The global indicator framework for Sustainable Development Goals was developed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) and agreed upon at the 48th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission held in March 2017. On July 6, 2017, the SDGs were made more actionable by a UN Resolution adopted by the General Assembly. The resolution identifies each goal and indicators that are used to measure progress toward each target. The timeline for each target is usually between 2020- 2030, while other targets are to continue in perpetuity. SDG 2 – Zero Hunger SDG 2 aims to end hunger, increase food security, end malnutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. This requires sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices, land use mapping, disaster management, and international cooperation on investments in infrastructure and technology to boost agricultural productivity. The UN has since developed 14 indicators and eight targets to measure the progress of SDG 2, and these targets are then divided into the outcome targets and the methods of achieving the targets....

While several senior positions within global business and government continue to follow patriarchal lines, online trading is for everyone, and more women are continuing to change the status quo of the previously male-dominated industry. Female participation in online trading is steadily increasing, and according to INFINOX’s insights, Quarter 2 of 2021 recorded a 291% increase compared to the same quarter a year prior. Notably, younger female clients are also getting involved in trading, with 71% of them under the age of 40, and 39% under 30. This can be attributed to the impact of technology on the industry and the rise of social trading apps such as INFINOX’s IX Social platform. The social element of the platform has provided women with the opportunity to interact with other traders, bringing them together and allowing them to share trading experiences in a relaxed environment. It allows traders to discuss ideas and trades, and in an industry that is overloaded with information, being able to dissect the right information is crucial for the decision making process. The pivotal point of the platform is that it allows traders to access financial markets from anywhere and at any time across the world from the comfort of their mobile devices. Research by the University of Tilburg, Netherlands, suggests that women are more risk-averse than their male counterparts, a good trait to have in the world of trading. It is also thought that men are more likely to hold on to a losing trade, while women tend...

What you need to know: Farmers must stop one-crop cultivation systems and diversify. They need to keep animals, plant multi-purpose trees, store water, make and use compost and do rotational farming even on small pieces of land. The criticality of the agricultural sector to the economic transformation of Africa and the East African region cannot be gainsaid. It is fitting that the region is participating in the food systems summit discussions that are being held as a prelude to the big UN Summit on the same in New York next month. While discussions about foregrounding agricultural development, investing more in the agricultural value chain and ensuring that farming is done in a sustainable manner are not new, the unhappy fact is that the resolve to execute on commitments that have been made – like the 2014 Malabo agreement under which African governments agreed to commit at least 10 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture – are yet to be met almost two decades since. During last Thursday’s Nation Leadership Forum, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) President Agnes Kalibata was passionate that investments must be made in agriculture to ensure the systems that support agricultural transformation work efficiently. The smallholder farmer, that most central cog in Africa’s agricultural wheel, must have access to improved inputs (seeds, fertilizers, extension services for improved agronomic practices and post-harvest management), access to inclusive finance and to markets. All these can only exist sustainably within progressive and robust policy environments, which...

AS several countries across Africa continue to be impacted by third and fourth waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest AFRI CONVERSE 2021 dialogue took a closer look at innovative local initiatives and the ongoing international support to bolster the continent’s response to the virus. Approximately 18 months since the outbreak of the pandemic, over 2.5 million people in Africa have been infected and the death toll is in the tens of thousands. A recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study warned that by 2030, approximately eight out of 10 people pushed into poverty due to COVID-19 will live in countries on the lower end of human development, with the heaviest burden falling on Africa. And yet, in spite of the harsh impact of the pandemic on livelihoods, the continent has demonstrated extraordinary resilience across various sectors when compared to the other regions of the world. Opening the fourth instalment of the AFRI CONVERSE dialogue this year, Professor Tomohiko Sugishita, from the Department of International Affairs and Tropical Medicine at the Tokyo Women’s Medical University said, “this session is a wakeup call for us to examine Africa’s ingenuity, productivity and capacity to mitigate the pandemic, as well as determine how we can support such opportunities in building a new future for the continent.” “To boost the efforts taken by our partner countries in Africa and other parts of the world in response to the pandemic, JICA has launched JICA’s Initiative for Global Health and Medicine focusing on treatment, precaution, and...

Over 2,500 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya have received training on expanding their digital presence courtesy of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA). The KEPSA E-commerce Booster Program was launched in February this year with a target of training 2,000 MSMEs. According to the Alliance, the enterprises have been trained on introduction to e-commerce, digital marketing, aftersales, content creation and management. Of the figure, 1300 businesses were on-boarded onto various ecommerce marketplaces to increase and diversify their revenue streams hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic. The MSMEs targeted by the program were struggling with their digital brand presence with majority of them reporting they were either unaware of missed opportunities or did not have a digital brand strategy. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause disruptions in global and regional value chains, it is clear that e-commerce is an important tool and solution for both businesses and consumers,” KEPSA said in a statement. The Alliance says it conducted the program owing to the fact that e-commerce can support small businesses in reducing their costs and effectively reaching their customers. E-commerce is also an economic driver for both domestic growth and international trade that makes economies more competitive. KEPSA reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic has occasioned a spike in business-to-consumers (B2C) online sales and an increase in Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce. According to the Alliance, the increase in B2C sales is particularly evident in online sales of medical supplies, household essentials and food products. As a result, attention has been...

Summary Kenyan vegetable and cut flower producers are set to access the British market more efficiently and cheaply. The UK, which voted to leave the 27-member economic bloc in 2016, formally left the bloc on January 31, 2020. TIP is the first digital trade corridor to be established between the UK and a developing country since the UK's exit from the EU. Kenyan vegetable and cut flower producers are set to access the British market more efficiently and cheaply, following a plan to eliminate paperwork in trade between the two countries with long-standing historical ties. The plan, which is still under discussion, is set to make Kenyan exports to the United Kingdom market more competitive, just seven months after the two countries signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) in London in December 2020, ensuring continuity of their trade relations after the British government voted to exit the European Union (EU). The UK, which voted to leave the 27-member economic bloc in 2016, formally left the bloc on January 31, 2020, with a transitional period of up to December 31, 2020, to negotiate new trade agreements with countries it was trading with under the EU terms. The Kenya-UK EPA allows Kenyan products unfettered access to the British market, free of duty and quota restrictions. On Monday, July 26, Kenyan-based non-profit making organisation TradeMark Africa (TMA), and the UK-based Institute of Export and International Trade ((IOE&IT), signed a memorandum of understanding providing a framework for collaboration in the implementation of a digital...