Foreign Minister Shirley Botchwey makes strong case for increased intra-African trade
Quoting AfCFTA Secretary General Wamkele Mene, Ms Botchwey said the AfCFTA is the beacon of hope for Africa’s economic resurgence
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has made an impassioned case for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to an audience of hundreds of business leaders in Namibia as well as two Southern African presidents and members of their cabinets.
Speaking as a special guest at the opening of the sixth Swakopmund International Trade Expo (SWAiTEX), Ms Botchwey said: “It is our responsibility as leaders in government, industry, finance, SMEs, start-ups, regulation and civil society to harness our collective resources and capabilities towards an efficient market in trade and services, job creation and prosperity for all Africans.”
The event in Swakopmund, 360 kilometres west of the capital, Windhoek, was attended by Presidents Nangolo Mbumba of Namibia and Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana, whose delegation included his vice-president, Slumber Tsogwane, and, in President Masisi’s own words, “half of my cabinet, because we want to trade; we want to do serious business”.
“The African Continental Free Trade Area is the beacon of hope for Africa’s economic resurgence,” Ms Botchwey said, quoting the AfCFTA secretary teneral, Wamkele Mene of South Africa, and adding: “We agree wholeheartedly.”
Resplendent in an African-print outfit accessorised with a hand-woven kente shawl, Ms Botchwey, a former deputy trade minister, said Africans must make “African products our preferred products” while building partnerships regionally and across the continent to service the common market.
As a free trade area connecting 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$3.4 trillion, the AfCFTA, which has its headquarters in Ghana, promises immense new markets, accelerated industrialisation and fresh investment opportunities, Ms Botchwey said.
The theme for the trade exhibition was “Efficient Connectivity and Resource Beneficiation for Sustainable Growth in Africa”. Ms Botchwey acknowledged that African economies are facing challenging headwinds, including cascading impacts on debt, energy, food security, the cost of living, unemployment and climate crises.
However, she said, “the transformative potential of the AfCFTA shows that we can overcome our challenges and build resilient economies”.
She said Ghana was pleased that creative initiatives were being introduced to expedite trading under the AfCFTA, including payment settlements.
She commended Namibia for recently joining an AfCFTA-guided trade initiative with Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. “This affirms your commitment and political will for meaningful trade within the African continent,” Ms Botchwey told President Mbumba, who assumed office in February after the death of President Hage Geingob.
The Guided Trade Initiative was established in 2022 as an interim measure to begin trade among interested parties, once they have met the minimum threshold for trading under the AfCFTA. It is designed to test the agreement’s capacity to function as envisaged and to identify and fix imperfections.
The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) also signed a memorandum of understanding in April 2023 to facilitate investment and trade flows between the two countries, under the umbrella of the AfCFTA.
Ms Botchwey, a candidate for the position of Commonwealth secretary general, has made trade and investment an important plank of her vision for how she wants to lead the organisation. Namibia, Botswana and Ghana are among the 21 Commonwealth countries in Africa. There are 56 members of the organisation altogether.
She said developing countries with overlapping memberships in multilateral institutions must work together consciously and strategically to change their marginalised status in global trade and governance.
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