African Free Trade facilitation to start Jan. 2021..as its budget is approved to recruit staffs
Adnan Adams Mohammed
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) secretariat has disclosed that, the free trade facilitation among African countries will start January 2021 as its budget has been approved for the secretariat operations.
To this, the secretariat will soon start advertise various
administrative, professional and technical vacant positions in order to get
qualified persons to assist in the smooth operations.
This means, starting next year, trans-border traders within
the African continent will start enjoying better, relaxed and reduced trade
tariffs, transit cargo regulations and customs and trade impasse settlement. The
AfCFTA has a wide range of instruments that put in place a robust and
comprehensive trade regime that facilitates trade through simplified and
digitized documents and procedures, ensures benefit for small to medium scale
enterprises (SMEs) and by prioritizing the products they trade for
interventions and liberalization.
“Budget for the secretariat has been approved and in the
next few weeks we shall be in the position to start advertising positions both
the ones that are the professional levels and those that will be support staffs”,
The Secretary-General, Wamkele Mene revealed at a media engagement last week in
Accra. Adding that, Nigeria has agreed to ratify the Agreement at next
extra-ordinary session of the AU head of States meeting.
He further noted that mentorship will be provided to young
trained professionals.
“Specifically for people that come from the universities so
that they have opportunities to work with us for a year.
“The idea is to build the spirit of young country
professionals so that after the period that they spend with us they can either
be absorbed into the secretariat or they can joined the private sector,” he said.
The AfCFTA is a free trade area which, as of 2018, includes
28 countries. It was created by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement
among 54 of the 55 African Union nations.
The free-trade area is the largest in the world in terms of
the number of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade
Organization.
Accra, Ghana serves as the Secretariat of AFCFTA and was
commissioned and handed over to the African Union (AU) by President Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo on August 18, 2020 in Accra.
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