Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this very important Statement.
Mr Speaker, we are talking about a very important subject matter this morning which has to do with the AfCFTA, where as Africans, we are trying to integrate and create one big market. We are talking about 55 countries coming together to create this market. If African countries were to trade among themselves, there would not be any need for us to go out there to look for any market.
11. 39 a.m.
Mr Speaker, statistics shows that in terms of Africa trading among ourselves -- I am quoting from Akinkide (2018), and it says that intra- Africa trade was about 17.7 per cent in 2016 as compared to 55.2 per cent, 59. 4 per cent, and 68.7 per cent for intra-America, intra-Asian, and intra-European trades respectively. It tells us that amongst us, in terms of continents, it is the African continent that is not doing inter-trading as should have been done. So, when the African Union (AU) talks about the African Continental Free Trade Area, then one would realise that it is a serious matter that we have to all contribute to.
Mr Speaker, the African Continental Free Trade Area has its strategic objectives, with your permission, I would like to read them. It says:
“One, creating a single market for goods and services;
two, contributing to the movement of capital, people and facilitating investment;
three, creating a continental custom union;
four, a standing intra-African trade;
five, resolving the challenges of over-lapping membership in regional economic countries;
six, promoting sustainable and inclusive economic development;
seven, boosting industrial development; and
eight, enhancing competitiveness”.
These are the strategic objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Mr Speaker, unlike I said early on, over all, we are talking about a number of 1.2 billion people across the 55 countries, and this is going to give us a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about US$3.4 trillion. I did a small research, and the World Bank says that if we were to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area effectively, then by the year 2035, the following things would have happened.
One, it would leave 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty;
two, increase Africa's export by an amount of US$560 billion by the year 2035;
three, boost inter-continental trade by 19 per cent and intra- continental trade by 81 per cent.
