CI-NEWS

UN says AfCFTA is continent’s greatest asset.

2020-07-21

No: 514

UN says AfCFTA is continent’s greatest asset.

During the commemoration of Africa Integration Day Last Week, UN officials affirmed that the tool will play a key in bringing about a united continent.

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, ECA, Vera Songwe, has said Africa possesses a great asset in the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA.

Cameroonian-born Vera Songwe was speaking during a video conference on Tuesday July 7, 2020, at a panel discussion to mark the inaugural Africa Integration day. The day has been set aside by the African Union to mark the implementation of the AfCFTA.

The Executive Secretary said the continent does not need an extraordinary plan to move the continent forward. “We need to talk about Africa and the AfCFTA. Our Marshall Plan is the AfCFTA. The AfCFTA is our plan, so let us take it and run with it”, she said. She believes in the plan and thinks, if well implemented, it can propel the continent to unimaginable levels. “With the AfCFTA, Africa had collectively penned its own blueprint for growth”, Songwe stressed.

Covid-19 imposed a recession

Vera Songwe regretted that growth rates in the continent are estimated to drop from 3.2per cent to -2.8 per cent as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Covid-19 came and has taken us quite far behind because we need to reassess where is it that we want to go and how we want to go. We definitely need to do things differently”, she added.

The Cameroonian-born Vera Songwe added that it was crucial for Africa to integrate its financial systems to create a mutualized system of financial stability that works for the continent or regional monetary cooperation as elsewhere in the continent.

She saluted the move towards the Afreximbank Exchange Facility, saying it is an excellent step in the right direction. She however cautioned that more is yet to be done to integrate the economies and financial sector.

“We do not need to go the long distance of common currency to get a mutualized system of financial stability that works for the continent. We need to ensure that as we build the AfCFTA and trade integration, we begin to build stronger, much more robust monetary and fiscal systems that can ensure that as a continent we actually can work with each other in a more effective way”, she said in her presentation.

ECA’s Executive Secretary said COVID-19 had given Africa an opportunity to assess its weak health delivery system. She observed that countries like South Africa, Ethiopia and Morocco are among those that have embarked on building new health infrastructure.

Other panelists featured Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNC-TAD, and Benedict Okey Oramah, the President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).

The panelists agreed with Songwe that AfCFTA was the best stimulus for Africa to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Culled from Cameroon insider

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UN says AfCFTA is continent’s greatest asset.