Dr. Yao Graham, Coordinator of the Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Africa), has expressed concerns about the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), pointing out that it has failed to address critical flaws in African trade systems.
He criticized AfCFTA for lacking sufficient consultation and engagement, particularly with the affected constituencies during its design phase, which has hindered citizen participation in the trade process.
Speaking at the TWN-Africa@30 event under the theme “Organising for Equitable and Transformative Policies,” Dr. Graham called for greater engagement and accountability in shaping the trade framework.
He also highlighted emerging challenges in the implementation phase, suggesting that these issues are linked to flaws in the agreement’s design.
“Sadly, when it came to the creation of the AfCFTA, the hope, and the expectation that the AfCFTA would help repair the damage caused by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) have not been fulfilled. Some of the same procedural mistakes of inadequate consultation and engagement with affected constituencies have marred the work around the AfCFTA.
“The AfCFTA’s trade logic is now fully embodied in the completed protocols. A lot of citizens had not engaged with the AfCFTA because it seems many people conflated their own pan-African interpretations of the kind of Kwame Nkrumah-type integration with the reality of the AfCFTA in practice.
“With the conclusion of the protocols, the challenges inherent in the design are becoming visible in the implementation phase. This is an issue we would like to suggest that more and more people should engage with the AfCFTA because it is an African project and only we Africans can solve it,” he stated.
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