HARARE, Mar. 17 (NewsDay Live) - Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Minister Mthuli Ncube says the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) remains uneven due to structural barriers.
This is despite the AfCFTA’s potential to boost intra-African trade by 45% by 2045.
Ncube called for the global financial architecture to be reformed to make it responsive to the needs of the continent and other developing countries in general.
The minister was speaking during the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Fifty-Seventh Session of the Conference African Ministers of Finance Planning and Economic Development on Monday, in Ethiopia.
“Let me hasten to say that, we can choose to see these developments as challenges or see them as opportunities, which we have to collectively as a continent take advantage as a spring board for accelerating economic reforms through economic transformation,” Ncube said.
“The (AfCFTA) serves as a power tool at our disposal for addressing some of these global challenges. With a market of 1,4 billion people and a combined GDP exceeding US$3,4 trillion, the AfCFTA offers a critical pathway for Africa to build resilience, reduce dependence on external markets, and drive sustainable industrialisation.
“Yet, despite its potential to boost intra-African trade by 45% by 2045, implementation remains uneven due to structural barriers, inadequate infrastructure, and limited access to trade finance.”
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He said the speed of success of the AfCFTA partially depended on the reform of the global financial architecture.
He added that there was need for the international community to come up with strategies to address the growing debt challenge for developing countries.
“In the short term, there is need for immediate implementation of the reallocation of the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) resolution to the needy countries,” Ncube said.
“In the medium to long term, there is need for the international community to come up with strategies to address the growing debt challenge for developing countries, as well as ease access concessional financing.”
Domestically, however, the minister argued that the African Union member states with the support of institutions like the commission needed to deepen domestic resource mobilisation.
The conference began on March 12, and ends on Tuesday.
