AfCFTA: Traders to have opportunities to scale up and expand their markets in 2022.

One year ago, free trading began under the auspices of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). In part two interview with Africa Renewal's Kingsley Ighobor, the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat Mr. Wamkele Mene discusses, among other issues, the crucial role of women and young people in free trade, a finance facility for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and a compensation mechanism to help cushion the fiscal impact of a loss of tariff revenues. These are excerpts.

-Wamkele Mene, Secretary General, African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat (AfCFTA)

Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General AfCFTA Secretariat.

You are always harping on the participation of African women and the youth in free trading. Why is that and are they hearing you?

The reason I put a strong emphasis on young Africans and SMEs led by women is that, first, they are the drivers of the African economy. SMEs run by women account for close to 60 per cent of Africa's GDP, creating about 450 million jobs. Also, young Africans are at the cutting edge of technological advancements, whether it is in Lagos or Kigali. They are developing the latest software to drive e-commerce and so on. We will be making a catastrophic mistake if we don't include these important segments of our society in the implementation of this agreement.

I believe that if we want to move away from the old models of trade agreements, trade agreements that were criticized as benefiting only the big corporations, we need to focus on young people and women-run SMEs.

Let me also say that given the character of Africa's economy and demographics, it would be ill-advised to have a traditional trade agreement, which focuses on trade in goods, trade in services, intellectual property rights, and so on. Therefore, we have a mandate from our Heads of State to negotiate a protocol on women and young traders. The trade agreement will not have credibility if you exclude important segments of society; it will be perceived to benefit only the elites.

Many African young entrepreneurs lack access to financing. Is there anything you are doing about that?

We are right now in conversations with commercial banks in Africa to expedite the establishment of a Trade Finance Facility to support young people, for Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs). That conversation, I must say, is going slower than I would have hoped because there are several technical issues that we have to iron out. We want to make sure that...