The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat says African governments must strengthen institutions, regulations and technical capacity if the continent is to convert the AfCFTA trade agreement into faster economic growth and deeper integration.
Speaking on the AfCFTA Podcast, Dr. Tsotsi Makong, Director of Coordination and Programmes at the Secretariat, said Africa’s experience in the global trading system showed that trade agreements alone do not deliver development without strong implementation.
“For the past 30 years… the continent’s level of integration in the global economy today sits at about 3%,” Makong said. “We have learned from that experience.”
He said the Secretariat has developed a continent-wide implementation strategy focused on strengthening governments’ ability to carry out reforms required under the trade agreement rather than simply ensuring legal compliance.
Makong outlined five priority areas that member states must address: developing technical expertise, improving administrative systems, strengthening institutional coordination, reforming regulations and investing in infrastructure.
The strategy aims to ensure ministries and regulatory agencies can implement trade commitments, including sanitary and phytosanitary standards, customs procedures, investment rules and other obligations under the agreement.
“It is not a given that when you have a trade agreement, a ministry will somehow become efficient,” he said. “Capacity has to be built deliberately.”
Makong said regulatory reforms should ultimately simplify cross-border trade, particularly for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and informal traders, many of whom continue to face administrative barriers at borders.
He said women traders often resort to unofficial crossing points because of cumbersome procedures and non-tariff barriers, adding that effective implementation of AfCFTA rules should make formal trade easier and safer.
More than 30 African countries have already developed national AfCFTA implementation strategies, according to Makong, although he said the next phase requires translating those plans into concrete institutional reforms.
He also stressed the need to strengthen the Secretariat itself, noting that it operates with a relatively small workforce compared with institutions such as the World Trade Organization despite coordinating implementation across the continent.
“The question that will probably be studied in history books is how the Secretariat managed to do this with such a small number of people,” he said.
Makong described the AfCFTA as Africa’s most important long-term economic project.”If we were to speak of insurance,” he said, “the only insurance policy that Africa has, economically speaking, is the AfCFTA.”
He said successful implementation would depend on sustained political commitment, stronger national institutions and greater participation by businesses, financiers and development partners.
