The AfCFTA Brings 'Much Hope' for Africa (CGEM)

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is an opportunity that brings much hope for Africa and it will enable the continent to reach a high stage of its development, said Tuesday in Casablanca president of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM), Chakib Alj.

The AfCFTA will help “capture the added value that today goes to Europe or Asia and offer better employment opportunities for its population through increased trade, better industrial integration and the possibility of setting up joint industrial projects,” Alj said during a meeting with the president of Senegal’s Economic, Social, and Environmental Council, Idrissa Seck, who is on an official visit to Morocco.

“It is essential to increase the rate of trade between African countries, which today represents only 16% of these countries’ overall trade,” Alj said.

While Morocco is very active on the continent through its companies, its exports to African countries represent only 3.2% of its total exports to the rest of the world, he observed.

The level of imports, the share of purchases from Africa represents barely 2.5% of total Moroccan imports, Alj added, expressing commitment to “turn economic cooperation into an engine of shared and inclusive growth.”

On bilateral relations, the CGEM head recalled the establishment of a joint Economic Impulse Group (EIG) which aims to boost economic cooperation, foster co-emergence, promote partnership between the private sectors of both countries and monitor the implementation of private-private and public-private agreements between Senegal and Morocco.

For his part, Seck praised the excellence of bilateral relations, particularly at the institutional level. He also called for more efforts to raise the level of trade to that of the excellent political and historical relations between the two countries.

The availability of high-level skills in both countries makes it essential to strengthen economic relations given existing potentialities, to engage in joint projects for the benefit of both populations, he explained.

“Morocco and Senegal, together with all our fellow Africans are determined to make the African continent not only the cradle of humanity but also its future,” Seck concluded.

The AfCFTA is a free trade area founded in 2018, with trade commencing as of 1 January 2021. It is the the largest free-trade area in the world in terms of the number of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).