An interesting article published on the Brookings Africa Foresight 2024 titled “The whys and hows of the mobility of Africans in Africa” raises the importance for African States to guarantee greater personal mobility across national borders for their citizens, as a condition for the successful implementation of the AfCFTA, and in particular of the Protocols for trade in services and investment, which explicitly require such mobility. The article notes that in Africa there is a lack of enthusiasm for the African Union’s free movement protocol mainly because of the fear, by the wealthiest countries, that masses of economic immigrants from poorer countries will relocate in their territories, in a time when they are already facing social issues, such as poverty and high unemployment. The risk is that such a large influx of low-income people will turn into a "social bomb" capable of causing social welfare systems in these States to collapse.

Read more...

The AfCFTA private sector database is a tool developed by the AfCFTA Secretariat to facilitate the matchmaking between African businesses. It aims at promoting business connections, partnerships, and collaborations among African economic operators that are interested to develop partnerships or collaboration opportunities with other commercial entities in the continent. More precisely, the platform collects data on enterprises involved or willing to engage in intra-Africa trade transactions or in other AfCFTA-related activities (ex. investments, skills training or provision of logistics services), by sharing such data with potential business partners who voluntary register on the platform.

Read more...