Giving Compass' Take:

• Albert Muchanga, African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry shares insights into the process of and potential for the African Continental Free Trade Area currently under consideration.

• What implications would a free trade area have for philanthropy in Africa? 

• Read about priorities for Africa in 2018.

One month after 44 African nations signed on to the African Continental Free Trade Area — an agreement that could create the world’s largest duty-free trade market — efforts toward implementation are gathering steam.

Observers say that consolidating the continent into one trade area would provide vast opportunities to expand regional integration, encourage industrialization and diversification, and widen trade possibilities for businesses and consumers, but the agreement still needs to be ratified at the national level by those countries that have signed on.

Devex sat down with Albert Muchanga, African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry, to talk about the current state of play and the challenges that lie ahead in implementing such a large free trade agreement.

Which African industries do you see benefiting most from AfCFTA?

With the establishment of AfCFTA, we are going to see private consumption and business-to-business transactions rising. That means the first beneficiary will be the manufacturing industry. There’s going to be enhanced demand for manufactured goods.

Right now, 42 percent of intra-African trade is made up of manufactured goods. Within this large market, large-scale production of manufactured goods is going to increase and therefore we will see a huge drive toward industrialization.

Read the full article about the African Continental Free Trade Area by Christin Roby at Devex International Development.