ECA is pleased to launch this information booklet, titled AfCFTA: What You Need to Know, which asks sometimes highly technical questions about the AfCFTA and attempts to answer them in a language that is accurate but also non-technical and accessible at the same time. The overall objective of this information booklet is to help enhance awareness about the AfCFTA among the business community and the general public.
Now that AfCFTA has become – at least technically – part of national law and regulation in over 85% of 2 Introduction the AU member States, ATPC is currently focusing on how to take the AfCFTA a step closer to the ground so that the ordinary African citizen can make sense of what the free trade area is all about and exploit its opportunities. Indeed, the AfCFTA will realize its potential to the full only if Africans, and particularly the African business community, understand, own and take advantage of it. However, we also know that the African business landscape is predominantly made up of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), including women-owned businesses, who lack the capacity to invest in understanding the opportunities created by the AfCFTA. This information asymmetry needs to be bridged over time. In this regard, ECA is pleased to launch this information booklet, titled AfCFTA: What You Need to Know.
