AfCFTA to boost regional trade by 80%

More than half of African countries will use the rules of a continental free-trade pact this year as the continent moves closer to fully integrating into a single market. According to Bloomberg News, AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene told a World Economic Forum panel in Davos Tuesday that of the 47 countries that have ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area, 31 will join the trade initiative, up from seven in 2023. The African Continental Free Trade Area, that includes a pan-African payments and settlement system using local currencies,has a potential market involving 1.3 billion people and a combined gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion. If fully operational by 2030, it could become the world’s largest free-trade zone by area. The World Bank predicts an 80% increase in regional trade, reaching $532 billion by 2035.