Africa Monitor

Africa Monitor Intelligence

Africa: Wamkele Mene, the African Free Trade Area's Cautious SG

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) SG, WAMKELE MENE (WM), is cautious about the process of its creation, which formally came into force on 01.JAN, after 34 ratifications of the agreement. The creation agreement was signed by 44 African Union member countries in 2018 in Kigali, after 3 years of negotiations, and now has 54 members - all AU members except Eritrea.
Among the 33 countries that have already ratified the agreement are Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea. This is followed by the adoption phase, internally, of commercial legislation in line with the agreement, and the creation of customs procedures. The main internal resistance to the adoption of the agreement is expected in the new phase, which will take the longest.
WM, SG of AfCFTA, was the deal negotiator for South Africa and representative of the South African government at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. A South African graduate of the London School of Economics, he asserted himself as a defender of the need for industrialization on the African continent and a critic of the continent's development model, which he considers unchanged with decolonization. READ MORE