Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, President of the World Trade Organization, has stated that in order for Africa to successfully implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we must lower the costs associated with doing business both within the continent and with the rest of the world.

She emphasized that some tariffs and obstacles result in significant costs for African exporters when trading both within and outside of the continent. She highlighted that these expenses are the equivalent of 350% in tariffs, which is 1.5 times higher than what you would find in wealthy nations.

This information was made public by Okonjo Iweala on Friday during a discussion of the IMF’s research on the prospects of the AfCFTA.

The globe is establishing resilience, which entails diversifying supply chains because they are overly focused in certain places and products, she continued, adding that there are possibilities in the weaknesses.

She stated that “Africa was importing 99% of vaccines, and 90% of our therapeutics, why can’t we make them here, so if we look at this as an opportunity to build supply chains, so we are not caught napping when there is a pandemic. it’s good to take advantage of this opportunity of building global resilience to attract investment in the continent”.

The African Union’s Agenda 2063, which aims to industrialize the continent and spur economic growth, would be carried out in large part by the AFCFTA, she continued.

The steps to take to reduce cost

The WTO Chief emphasized that specific steps must be taken by African authorities to make it work, including reducing the continent’s exorbitant trading costs with the outside world and with one another.

She further stated that “this is an equivalent of 350% tariffs and is 1.5 times larger than what you would find in developed countries. The costs are because of the barriers, trading with trade in Africa is equivalent to 435% tariff.

“Unless we can deal with the costs and bring them down, it would be difficult for us to actualise good implementation of the AfCFTA

“Let’s reduce costs, we are starting and assisting at the WTO, we spent about 4 million euros in the past 3 years helping different countries build capacity based on WTO standards and rules which is very good, we want this to happen, we need to look at the European Union, where trade is 60%, in ASEAN it’s about 21%, for us in Africa has ways to go.”