FORTY PERCENT OF ALL AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS PROCUREMENTS SHOULD BE WITHIN AFRICA – PAP PRESIDENT

The President of the Pan-African Parliament, Hon Chief Fortune Charumbira, has strongly backed the proposal by the African Business Council for forty percent of all procurements by African governments to be within Africa.

According to him, this is one of the bold ways of promoting and improving trade within Africa under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

 

In his opening remarks during the workshop on the African Union theme for 2023, “Accelerating the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): The strategic significance of the Pan-African Parliament,” Hon Chief Charumbira noted that AfCFTA is the panacea to address the economic challenges of Africa, noting that “If we succeed with free trade the fertilizer shortages, the power issues, the extreme poverty, and all other major challenges to Africa’s growth will be addressed”.

He stressed that African countries need to trade more within themselves to promote growth and investment within the Continent.

 

The PAP President however was saddened by the lack of interest in products made in Africa, which are deemed to be inferior and backward.

 

“The major problem of Africa is not being proud of ourselves. We have the best of everything, yet we want to shun all these and follow others blindly. That mentality will not make us rich. The developed countries are proud of their language and food. We need to wear, eat and use what we produce on the continent so that we must trade amongst ourselves.

We are 55 countries and yet we don’t produce anything of our own” he observed. 

 

He challenged members of the Pan-African Parliament to take a keen interest in the AfCFTA discussion and championed it in their individual countries.

 

According to statistics presented by the Economic, Social, and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), intra-African trade remains small compared with the continent’s external trade. “In 2020 just 18% of exports were to other African countries, lower than the equivalent shares in North America (30%), Asia (58%) or Europe (68%). Africa selling within Africa has more value-added than what Africa sells to the rest of the world, which is mostly raw materials. That means intra-African trade creates more employment in the source country than Africa trading with the rest of the world.”

 

Stressing PAP’s commitments to promote and accelerate the implementation of the AfCFTA, Hon Chief Fortune Charumbira noted that “This session will be interrogating issues relating to trade. We have dedicated two days to discussing this topic because it is a very important subject. This is the time for us as a Parliament to take a bold stand. AfCFTA has the potential to bring prosperity unto the Continent, but first, we have to address the challenges and bottlenecks bedeviling free trade.” 

 

On her part, Dr. Amany Asfour, President of the African Business Council, expressed delight at the opportunity to work with PAP, which is well positioned to advance trade on the Continent, to address and improve AU policy issues that affect trade on the Continent. 

 

She stressed that the dream of the private sector is economic liberation to realize financial independence and choice of voice. 

 

AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area bringing together the 55 countries of the African Union and eight Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The overall mandate of the AfCFTA is to create a single Continental market with a population of about 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of approximately US$3.4 trillion.

 

The AfCFTA, which is a flagship project of the African Union, was signed in March 2018, and entered into force on May 30, 2019, after 24 Member States deposited their Instruments of Ratification.