Last week Wednesday, I was part of a panel discussion in Oslo organized by the Norwegian Council for Africa on the prospects of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA came into force last Friday and is being billed as the biggest Free Trade Area in the history of the world. The overarching objective of the AfCFTA is to increase the level of intra-African trade which has been estimated to not be more than 20% of all Africa's trade. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa reckons the AfCFTA could increase this number by 50%! Our panel engaged with various aspects of AfCFTA particularly the prospects for success. You can listen to the audio of the panel discussion below. My co-panelists were Andreas Moxness, professor of economics at the University of Oslo and Cathrine Jahnsen of the Norwegian-African Business Association. The moderator was Celina Bright-Taylor of the Norwegian Council for Africa.
