News

AfCFTA Protocol on Women in trade: a tool for supporting women-led enterprises:

Monday, 24 May 2021 09:52

The AfCFTA Agreement is commonly defined as a “deep agreement” because it aims at promoting a deep level of integration that goes beyond trade, with provisions covering various policy areas such as services, intellectual property rights, investment and competition policy, e-commerce, most of them being still in course of negotiation within the context of specific Protocols yet to be formally adopted. In addition to such areas, a Protocol for Women in Trade is being negotiated, which aims at empowering women as a key sector for boosting intra-regional trade in Africa. Read the full post on our blog.

Port of Lamu in Kenya to become operational on 20 May

Wednesday, 19 May 2021 14:54

On Thursday 20 May the new Port of Lamu in Kenya will officially become operational. On that date, two ships are scheduled to dock at the port (MV CAP Carmel and MV SEAGO BREMERHAVEN) in a ceremony that will be will be attended by high government authorities from Kenya.

Political risk as a deterrent to industrialization of Africa

Tuesday, 11 May 2021 06:19

Many agree that the construction of the African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) can be an important opportunity for advancing the industrialization of the African continent, as the newly established Free Trade Area (FTA) will offer opportunities to both African and foreign investors to establish productive units in one or more African countries from where they can serve the markets in all the continent. But there are other factors that influence investors' choices and that are needed for creating the climate of confidence that is necessary in order this situation to materialise. Among these, the political stability. We explore such criterion in our post on our blog.

Kazungula OSBP officially begins operations

Monday, 10 May 2021 07:04

The Kazungula bridge is a 925m long bridge connecting Zambia and Botswana that will replace the existing ferry service in ensuring the movement of people and cargo from one edge to the other of the Zambezi river.

AfCFTA and export growth opportunities for Kenya and other COMESA countries

Tuesday, 04 May 2021 06:43

Since the beginning of 2021, Africa officially started trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement. According to the AfCFTA Secretariat, already after a few days from the date when the AfCFTA became operational, on 4 January, two maritime shipments of beverage and cosmetic products have been traded from Ghana to South Africa and Guinea under the AfCFTA rules. In order to increase awareness about the export opportunities arising from this agreement, the International Trade Centre (ITC) published a report that focuses on the COMESA region and explores its potential to export to regional markets so to benefit from the trade opportunities created by the AfCFTA.