As the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) expires, a Ghanaian exporter is worried that Africa’s homegrown trade pact, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), is still not ready to carry the weight of lost U.S. market access.
According to Nicholas Apokerah, Chief Executive of TradeAid Africa, while AfCFTA remains a significant vision for intra-African trade, persistent bottlenecks mean it cannot yet replace the opportunities AGOA provided.
The exporter reiterates that, indeed, African countries must trade among themselves; however, the circumstance prevailing on the continent makes trading a herculean task.
“There’s no two ways about the fact that we need to trade more among ourselves as African countries. And the AfCFTA has come to address that. But you agree with me that there are still a lot of bottlenecks within the AfCFTA system that we are not going to use one day to deal with,” he indicated.
Nicholas Apokerah explained that issues such as poor transportation links, cumbersome border procedures, and weak payment systems continue to make moving goods between African countries costly and inefficient.
These barriers, he explained, slow down efforts to unlock the real promise of AfCFTA.
He said, “Still movement, transportation, we are not easily accessible to each other. Payment systems are not well structured, and all that. So this will take a couple of times to deal with.”.
The expiration of AGOA has left many exporters anxious, particularly in Ghana, where non-traditional exports like shea, textiles, and processed foods had found steady markets in the U.S.
Apokerah argues that while Africa must urgently build up AfCFTA’s capacity, it must also work towards the renewal of AGOA for at least a year.
“As we are dealing with [AfCFTA’s challenges], at least let’s hold what we have at hand very well so that we can use that and then continue to address the other problems,” he stressed.
Apokerah also urged the African Union (AU) to adopt a unified approach when engaging with global trade blocs. He believes Africa’s negotiating power is weakened when countries go it alone instead of presenting a common front.
Trade experts agree that while AfCFTA’s long-term benefits are undeniable, the short-term reality is that Africa still leans heavily on traditional markets like the U.S. and Europe.
The exporter, therefore, warns that a self-reliant African market will take time, investment, and coordinated leadership, and hence a unified force is needed to negotiate for he extension of AGOA.
