Cameroon: ECA’s workshop in Yaoundé to implement Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement

Cameroon has organized a workshop in collaboration with the UN Economic Commission for Africa on April 16 in Yaoundé to lay the groundwork for the implementation of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement. Government officials said the two-day workshop gives Cameroon the opportunity to assess what the country will benefit from the agreement.

"We are talking about a continent of over 1 billion people and there are 25 million of us in Cameroon. The advantages of the free trade zone are so many for an economy like ours. It is necessary for us to work day and night to be part of the advantages and not disadvantages. We are confident that it will bring a lot of prosperity and stability to our economy," Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, Cameroon's Minister of Trade told the journalists.

The workshop, the first of its kind, brings together more than 100 stakeholders from the private sector, academia and civil society to evaluate Cameroon's readiness to ratify the agreement. Twenty-two African countries have already ratified the agreement, the minimum threshold expected to approve the deal among the 55 members of the African Union.

According to UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) represents a potential market of 1.2 billion consumers today, and nearly 2.5 billion in 2050, and is a powerful lever to stimulate exports, industrialization, job creation and economic diversification of the African continent, as reported by Xinhua.

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