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Fundamental mechanism to strengthen African economic integration and promote intra-African trade, the African continental free trade area (ZLECAF) was at the center of the debates on the first day of the intra-African trade fair that opened in Algiers on Thursday.
The question was on the agenda of a presidential debate session, in the form of a panel during which the stakeholders stressed the importance of the ZLECAF in the strengthening of intra-African trade. The challenges faced by the “optimal” implementation of this free trade space have however been noted.
Chaired by the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, this panel focused essentially on the paths of energizing the process of continental integration and the means of making Africa an economic power through the concretization of the Zlecaf.
The President of the Libyan Presidential Council, the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the President of Tunisia, Mozambique, and that of the Republic of Chad, had to express themselves on this theme, in addition to the vice-president of the Republic of Kenya, the vice-president of the Republic of Namibia, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Burundi and the former President of Niger.
These speakers thus exposed the vision and strategy of their country to develop trade between African countries, as well as the potential of their economies.
The former President of the Republic of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, thus called on the countries of the continent to mobilize their resources and work to find solutions in order to relaunch their economies, taking into account the potentialities and resources they have and which empower them to play a central role, especially in the agricultural sector, with a view to freeing themselves from external dependence.
In order to achieve substantial growth rates, Issoufou stressed the importance of investment and intra-African trade as a pillars of growth, noting that the ZLECAF is the “flagship project” which has advanced the most. A project that is called upon to draw other common projects, he said.
The secretary general of the Zlecaf, Wamkele Menne, who intervened during the opening ceremony of the 4e Edition of the IATF, for its part called the States of the African Union (AU) to unify their efforts to build a solid internal market through the Zlecaf, in order to strengthen resilience and protect common interests in the face of current challenges at international level.
“The current global context is characterized by an uncertainty in trade, the rise of economic nationalism and the protection of investments, hence the need to work in concert and with determination and diligence to build a solid internal market, by taking advantage of the ZLECAF in order to strengthen the resilience capacities of Africa and to protect its common interests,” he said, signaling the challenges and confronted the continent. A situation, he says, which makes it necessary to accelerate the lifting of intra-African obstacles to trade and investment, relating mainly to transport.
These challenges did not prevent intra-African trade from progressing. The latter knew, according to the SG of the ZLECAF, “a strong recovery” in 2024, exceeding $ 220 billion, an increase of 12.5% compared to 2023.