The historic summit of Kigali on the Continental Free Trade Zone is scheduled for March 21, 2018. Some 29 heads of state will participate. In addition, 16 other countries will send high-ranking delegates.
The following countries will be represented by their Heads of State: Niger, Uganda, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Djibouti, DR Congo, Togo, Mauritania, Gabon, Guinea, Senegal, Kenya, Mali, Madagascar, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Nigeria, Burkina Faso Faso, the Central African Republic, Libya, Comoros, Rep. Sahrawi, Ghana, Lesotho, Gambia, Somalia, Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The countries to be represented by their Prime Ministers, Vice-Presidents or Foreign Ministers are: Ivory Coast, Seychelles, Morocco, Swaziland, Tanzania, Benin, Malawi, Mauritius, Botswana, Cape Verde, Egypt, Namibia, Sao Tome, Tunisia, South Sudan and Eritrea.
This means that more than 45 countries could sign the agreement, which aims to make Africa the largest trading area in the world where goods and services can be traded without any restrictions between member states.
ECA Executive Secretary Vera Songwe, AfDB President Adesina Akinwumi, and COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya, NEPAD Head Ibrahim Mayaki, Special Envoy for the Union Peace Fund Donald Kaberuka, former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo and Executive Director of the International Trade Center (ICC), Arancha González, will attend the Summit.
An important Conference on Competition, Intellectual Property Rights, and Investments, will precede the Summit on Tuesday, March 20th. Its purpose is to collect contributions from the Private Sector on the integration of African economies.
The topics will be: diversification of basic African products, opportunities for a single market, employment, empowerment of women and youth, business cost reduction and trade finance.
Securing a larger and more easily accessible market is expected to boost the productive capacity of the continent’s companies, which will translate into other benefits, such as job creation and increased tax revenues for the continent. government.
