The report of “Business Seminar on African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA)”
Day：2024.12.04
event ｜
Overview
The title of event: Business Seminar on African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA)
Date: 21st November, 2024
Co-organizer: JETRO、JICA、UNDP、UNIDO
Seminar Style: Online
The main speakers
1. Opening Remarks：Ms. Mari Fujii, Director-General, Research & Analysis Department, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)
2. Keynote Speech
・Dr. Tsotetsi Makong, Chief Technical Advisor Capacity Building, Trade Negotiations and Trade Policy, AfCFTA Secretariat
・Dr. Ify Ogo,, Regional AfCFTA Programme Specialist, UNDP
・Ms. Kazuyo Kaneko, Project Formulation Advisor (Promoting AfCFTA/Trade Facilitation), JICA
3. Panel Discussion：
・Dr. Tsotetsi Makong, Chief Technical Advisor Capacity Building, Trade Negotiations and Trade Policy, AfCFTA Secretariat
・Dr. Ify Ogo UNDP, Regional AfCFTA Programme Specialist
・Ms. Happiness Nyiti, AJA Limited, Managing Director, and Champion of AFCFTA Women and Youth Protocol
・Mr. Toru HOMMA, Senior Advisor to the CEO, African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD); JICA Senior Advisor on Private Sector Development
4. Closing Remarks: Ms. Fumio Adachi, Head, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Investment and Technology Promotion Office, Tokyo (UNIDO ITPO Tokyo)
Contents
The 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9) will be held in Yokohama in August 2025 and the collaboration between Japan and Africa is expected to be further promoted. In this context, JICA co-hosted an online seminar with JETRO, UNDP, and UNIDO. The purpose of this seminar was to share the recent activities of AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area), an initiative to eliminate tariffs among African countries for the purpose of unifying markets on the continent. The agreement was signed by 54 out of 55 member states of the African Union (AU) and became operational from 2021, but it is still not well known in Japan. The seminar invited the AfCFTA Secretariat, development partners, and a local African company that has utilized the AfCFTA framework to share the current activities of the AfCFTA, its initiatives, and future prospects.
AfCFTA Secretariat’s explanation
During the seminar, the AfCFTA Secretariat explained that the AfCFTA is also beneficial for foreign investment, and subsequently UNDP and JICA introduced their support to promote AfCFTA respectively. In the panel discussion, the speaker from the African company using the AfCFTA framework explained how she used the AfCFTA framework. The JICA Senior Advisor as the panelist pointed out the potential of the AfCFTA framework and compared to ASEAN’s developing process.
The seminar was attended by about 250 people, and participants were able to have better understanding on the potential of this new framework, including specific ways to use the AfCFTA.
The introduction from the Tanzanian private company using AfCFTA framework
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