If you have any interest in Africa you have probably heard of the African Continental Free Trade Area -AfCFTA , I have created a quick for dummies blog post on what you need to know about AfCFTA

What AfCFTA is?
What change is it going to bring?
What does it mean to you as an individual or as someone with business interest in Africa?

A free trade area is a group of countries, who have mutually agreed to limit or eliminate trade barriers with each other. The group of nations will have to establish rules to govern the customs,tariffs on goods, trade conflicts resolution and IP

Phase I of negotiations for AfCFTA covered trade in goods, trade in services and dispute settlement. Phase II is to cover investment, competition policy and intellectual property rights

Why is it necessary or useful? Africa does very little trade with itself as opposed to trade with the West and East. In 2017, intra- African exports were 16.6% as opposed to 68% in Europe and 59% in Asia . The AU wants to change that

What does that means for travelling and cost of tech skill?
ease of regulatory barriers for heavily regulated industries like Fintech intra continent?
Can AfCFTA help fix the issues with intellectual property theft in wholistic way

read full blog post on http://blog.ethelcofie.com/2021/01/18/understanding-the-african-continental-free-trade-area-afcfta-for-dummies-version/#.YAVvHuj7TIU