This year, Africa’s Industrialization Day focused on raising awareness of the importance of African industrial development in implementing a successful Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), fostering economic growth, and alleviating poverty. A continent-wide endeavor, the CFTA aims to create a single market for goods and services in Africa. Three things to know:

  1. The potential impact of the CFTA includes boosting intra-Africa trade, manufacturing exports, job creation for youth, and poverty alleviation.
  2. The industrial policies needed to increase the CFTA’s impact must focus on productivity, competition, diversification, and economic complexity.
  3. The role of CFTA’s implementation in facilitating industrialization is that it creates a continental market, unlocks manufacturing potential, and bolsters an international negotiation block.

Read the full article about Africa's industrialization and the Continental Free Trade Area by Landry Signé at Brookings.