The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the U.S. trade program that provides African countries with duty-free access to American markets, is set to expire at the end of September 2025, raising concerns among nations that rely heavily on exports to the United States.
Several African countries, including Lesotho and Ghana, are monitoring developments closely as Washington considers a potential one-year extension.
According to Business Insider, Lesotho’s trade minister, Mokhethi Shelile, said after meetings with U.S. Congressional committees that “they all agreed that AGOA has to be extended, and they promised us that by November or December at the latest, it will be extended by a year. We will be monitoring closely that the extension comes into force as promised, because if it doesn’t, we are risking losing more jobs.”
AGOA, enacted in 2000, allows eligible sub-Saharan African countries to export thousands of products, including textiles, apparel, and agricultural goods, to the United States without paying tariffs. For Lesotho, the program is vital to the textile sector, which employs tens of thousands of workers, most of them women, and contributes roughly 16% of the country’s GDP, Business Insider reported.
The potential extension comes amid ongoing uncertainty over the U.S.-Africa trade relations.
Analysts warn that although AGOA has given African exporters preferential access to the U.S. market, its expiration could disrupt key sectors and threaten employment, particularly in smaller, export-dependent economies.
According to Business Insider, AGOA has been more than a trade policy; it has stimulated industrial growth, created jobs, and attracted foreign investment.
In Lesotho and other countries, textile factories expanded under the program, sustaining tens of thousands of jobs.
As the September expiration approaches, African governments and industry associations are lobbying for continued access, emphasizing AGOA’s role in supporting economic development and maintaining competitiveness.
While U.S. lawmakers have yet to finalize the extension, reports of Congressional support provide cautious optimism for countries across the continent that depend on AGOA to sustain growth and safeguard employment.
