Africa favours opportunistic free trade, foreign alliances

Awareness of Africa’s most ambitious initiative, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) among its publics is dismal, despite its being operational for five years now. Ratified by 49 countries and signed by all except Eritrea, AfCFTA is a priority economic integration effort within the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

The latest edition of the flagship Afrobarometer survey finds that “only 13 percent of Africans have heard of the agreement”. Even in Ghana, which hosts its secretariat, only 17 percent of citizens are aware of it. Knowledge of the pact in East Africa is similarly appalling – Kenya (21 percent), Uganda (18 percent) and Tanzania (6 percent).