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<p>The United Kingdom is in last-ditch Brexit talks to finalise its future ahead of the December 31st deadline. Meanwhile, data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that the UK emerged as the top source of capital investment into Nigeria, accounting for just over 40 per cent of the total capital inflows in the third quarter. As Africa gets set for trade under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in a couple of weeks, we&#8217;ll find out how the United Kingdom intends to work with Nigeria going forward. Helen Grant the UK Prime Minister&#8217;s Trade Envoy to Nigeria joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


AfCFTA & Brexit: How the U.K plans to deepen trade relations with Nigeria

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<p>As the start of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement draws closer, we find out how technology can help to boost trade delivery with Alioune Ciss, CEO of Webb Fontaine.</p>


AfCFTA: Webb Fontaine CEO on how technology can boost trade delivery

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<p>Jean-Paul Adam, Director of Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management Division at UNECA joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


UNECA on how to leverage the AfCFTA to ensure food security

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<p>Nigeria’s president says the country will soon open its land boarder which was closed prior to COVID-19. Ahead of the commencement of the AfCFTA, Tony Edeh, CEO of Norrenberger Financial Group joins CNBC Africa to make an investment case for Nigeria.</p>


Norrenberger CEO on 2021 investment outlook for Nigeria

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<p>From next year trade under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement will commence and the agreement will create a 3.4 trillion-dollar economic bloc regional integration will play a critical role in its success and Joe Attah-Mensah, Principal Policy Adviser for the Macroeconomic and Governance Division at UNECA joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


UNECA on how the AfCFTA will strengthen regional integration

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<p>The African Continental Free Trade Area is set to commence in January, a move that aims to revolutionize trade in Africa. Economic Analyst, Ted Kaberuka joins CNBC Africa to discuss Rwanda’s preparedness ahead of the AFCFTA launch.</p>


Reviewing Rwanda’s preparedness ahead of AfCFTA launch

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<p>The Africa Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat has unveiled a digital platform that aims to boost trade across the continent. How does it work and how important is it to the implementation of the agreement? Francis Mangeni, Director of Trade Promotion &#038; Programs at the AfCFTA Secretariat joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


AfCTA’s new trade platform: Here’s what you need to know

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<p>The recently created Afreximbank fund for export development in Africa also known as FEDA has a primary goal of supporting Africa&#8217;s exports markets, CNBC Africa spoke to the fund’s CEO, Philip Kamau on this and the decision to have the fund’s headquarters in Kigali.</p>


Afreximbank’s FEDA fund to support AfCFTA goals

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<p>As countries position to take advantage of the opportunities in the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, we will examine Nigeria&#8217;s preparations and if Africa&#8217;s largest economy can adequately compete in the automotive industry. Bambo Adebowale, Chairman of the Auto and Allied sector of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


AfCFTA: Can Nigeria’s automobile industry adequately compete?

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<p>Kenya and France have signed three bilateral agreements to strengthen economic relations between the two countries and CNBC Africa spoke with Janet Mulu, Trade &#038; Investment Consultant to shine more lights on the agreements and what this means to Kenya.</p>


Unpacking the Kenya-France bilateral deals

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<p>Nigeria is at the tail-end of negotiations on the rules of origin, a move that brings the nation closer to the ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement &#8211; that’s according to the Acting Director General of the Nigerian office of Trade Negotiations, Liman Victor Liman. Obiora Madu, CEO of Multimix Group joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Nigeria edges closer to AfCFTA ratification

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<p>Africa’s largest global trading partner is China; however the vulnerability of global supply chains has intensified with onslaught of the U.S-China trade tensions.</p>


How the U.S-China trade tensions impacts Africa’s free trade agreement

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<p>In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) was postponed by six months but should the African Union and have gone on to operationalize the trade deal? Edem Adzogenu, Co-Founder of the Afrochampions Initiative joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Afrochampions Initiative on the operationalization of the AfCFTA amid COVID-19

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<p>One of the expected outcomes of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement is to integrate African economies and therefore create a regional economic bloc of about $3.4 trillion. Moono Mupotola, Director for Regional Integration at the African Development Bank joins CNBC Africa’s Kenneth Igbomor to discuss how Africa can integrate its markets to take full advantage of the AfCFTA in post-COVID-19.</p>


#AfDBAM2020: AfDB on how to best integrate African markets post-COVID-19

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<p>The operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area has been moved to December of this year by Africa’s heads of states due to COVID-19 pandemic.</p>


How Africa’s free trade agreement could be the best stimulus after COVID-19

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<p>The World Bank says the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted trade and triggered up to $79 billion in output losses in Africa alone this year. But the bank stressed that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement has the potential to boost Africa’s income by $450 billion by 2035. Winston Osuchukwu, co-Founder of Trans-Sahara Incorporated joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


World Bank: AfCFTA to boost Africa’s income by $450bn by 2035


<p>Why the Covid-19 crisis proves the power and promise of the AfCFTA</p>



<p></p>



<p>The African Continental Free Trade Agreement was ratified last year but this year’s onset of the covid-19 pandemic forced African Union leaders to postpone its taking effect. The disease has had a serious impact on the continent, having claimed prominent leaders and infecting 578,207 in confirmed cases as of July 12<sup>th</sup> according to the Africa CDC, Johns Hopkins and government data. The economic fallout has probably been even more severe; lockdowns and supply chain seizures to import dependent African nations have severely impacted incomes and livelihoods for Africa’s largely informal workforce. However, the crisis has focused the minds of African policy makers around the necessity to create a more resilient healthcare system and the need to manufacture more of its critical needs at home. This renewed focus on productive self sufficiency can be assisted significantly by implementing the AfCFTA.</p>



<p>Covid-19 has provided the previously missing urgency amongst leaders around developing the sort of coherent industrial policy necessary to get any benefit from a continental free trade zone. Africa manufactures very little at the moment and many critics rightly questioned the wisdom of liberalizing internal borders without having African produced goods to sell across them. There is still great risk that creating this internal free market gets exploited by existing low-cost producers in Asia and Europe, limiting the job-creating potential its architects intend. But the recent response to the novel coronavirus may offer a blueprint on how to ensure the realization of the AfCFTA dream.</p>



<p>The vast market created by AfCFTA will provide an immediate boon to nascent plans being guided by the African CDC, NEPAD and others to produce various critical healthcare items such as pharmaceutical compounds, PPE and ventilators in countries such as Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. The sudden demand for these life saving products and the enormous logistical challenges African nations suffered attempting to secure supplies from East Asia and Western Europe has left a lasting impression. During the initial frenzy of procurement countries around the globe raced to stockpile PPE and ventilators, in many cases shutting individual African nations who lacked the financial firepower and sufficient order quantities to elbow into global queues for scarce supplies at mainly Chinese manufacturers.</p>



<p>In response, the African Union launched a pooled procurement online market place to aggregate the orders of African nations. Now leaders and businessmen are going a step further – setting up supply for this local demand on African soil. A range of textile firms, diaper manufacturers and equipment makers are adding additional lines and re-purposing existing capacity to produce PPE, medical equipment and ventilators. A surfeit of concessional finance, international donors and grants from African philanthropists such as Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga has bolstered the purchasing power of African health ministries, jump starting demand for new output.</p>



<p>AfCFTA’s implementation can help sustain the opportunity for new production capacity and demonstrate the power of the shared market to would-be entrepreneurs in other sectors. The key deciding factor for the success of the continental free zone will be Africa’s indigenous business community rising to the occasion – manufacturing for the needs of Africa’s 1.2 billion consumers. To encourage those entrepreneurs and investors African governments and supranational indigenous bodies like the African Union should build on the lessons they have learned in rapidly coordinating to intervene in the covid-19 response. The same tools and institutional structures being pulled together to rapidly promote the production of healthcare items and vaccine delivery should immediately be expanded and adapted to FMCG, automotive assembly, apparel and other heavily consumed items across the African continent. It is only with this emphasis on local production that Africa will enjoy the dividends of the AfCFTA: jobs for its young, growing population and meaningful wealth creation for its business community and their investors.<br><br><em>Franklin Olakunle Amoo is the managing partner of Baylis Emerging Markets, an investment firm focused on African industry and manufacturing. Baylis is a founding partner of the Africa Pandemic Response Alliance, an African led initiative coordinating the response to the covid-19 pandemic on the continent</em></p>


AfCFTA

AfCFTA & Brexit: How the U.K plans to deepen trade relations with Nigeria

AfCFTA: Webb Fontaine CEO on how technology can boost trade delivery

UNECA on how to leverage the AfCFTA to ensure food security

Norrenberger CEO on 2021 investment outlook for Nigeria

UNECA on how the AfCFTA will strengthen regional integration

Reviewing Rwanda’s preparedness ahead of AfCFTA launch

AfCTA’s new trade platform: Here’s what you need to know

Afreximbank’s FEDA fund to support AfCFTA goals

AfCFTA: Can Nigeria’s automobile industry adequately compete?

Unpacking the Kenya-France bilateral deals

Nigeria edges closer to AfCFTA ratification

How the U.S-China trade tensions impacts Africa’s free trade agreement

Afrochampions Initiative on the operationalization of the AfCFTA amid COVID-19

#AfDBAM2020: AfDB on how to best integrate African markets post-COVID-19

How Africa’s free trade agreement could be the best stimulus after COVID-19

World Bank: AfCFTA to boost Africa’s income by $450bn by 2035

COMMENT: AfCFTA is economic medicine Africa needs to recover from the covid-19 pandemic

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AfCFTA

AfCFTA & Brexit: How the U.K plans to deepen trade relations with Nigeria

AfCFTA: Webb Fontaine CEO on how technology can boost trade delivery

UNECA on how to leverage the AfCFTA to ensure food security

Norrenberger CEO on 2021 investment outlook for Nigeria

UNECA on how the AfCFTA will strengthen regional integration

Reviewing Rwanda’s preparedness ahead of AfCFTA launch

AfCTA’s new trade platform: Here’s what you need to know

Afreximbank’s FEDA fund to support AfCFTA goals

AfCFTA: Can Nigeria’s automobile industry adequately compete?

Unpacking the Kenya-France bilateral deals

Nigeria edges closer to AfCFTA ratification

How the U.S-China trade tensions impacts Africa’s free trade agreement

Afrochampions Initiative on the operationalization of the AfCFTA amid COVID-19

#AfDBAM2020: AfDB on how to best integrate African markets post-COVID-19

How Africa’s free trade agreement could be the best stimulus after COVID-19

World Bank: AfCFTA to boost Africa’s income by $450bn by 2035

COMMENT: AfCFTA is economic medicine Africa needs to recover from the covid-19 pandemic

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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