African Continental Free Trade Area

Representatives of 44 of the 55 member countries of the African Union have signed the African Continental Free Trade Area pact in Kigali, in Rwanda, recently. The signing ceremony took place during the 10th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union. The deal envisages that the free trade zone to be created by participating countries will boost inter-African trade, estimated at 10 percent at the moment. The AU hopes that the deal will also speed up the process of a single currency for intra-continental trade and free movement of Africans on the continent. Joining us for this conversation we are joined by: • Dr Peter Karungu, economist • Trudi Hartzenberg the executive director of Tralac, • Asmita Parshotam is a researcher under the Economic Diplomacy Programme at SAIIA