5 important things to know about the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement

One of the centerpiece initiatives of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, the African Union’s long-term development plan for making the continent a worldwide superpower, is the AfCFTA.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which unites the 55 members of the African Union (AU) and eight Regional Economic Communities (RECs), is the largest free trade area in the world. It has an overarching goal of establishing a single continental market with a combined GDP of around US$3.4 trillion and a population of over 1.3 billion.

According to the official agreement document between member states, the primary objective of AfCFTA is to create a single market for goods, and services, facilitated by the movement of persons to deepen the economic integration of the African continent and by the Pan-African Vision of “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa” enshrined in Agenda 2063.