AfDB Signs $4.8m Grant Support With AU

• AfDB Signs $4.8m Grant Support With AU

In a bid to fast track the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA), the African Development Bank Group has signed a $4.8 million institutional support grant with the African Union.

According to the bank, the grant will help the integration of commerce between the 55 African nations and aid economic transformation on the continent.

Albert Muchanga, the African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry, signed on behalf of African Union, while Obed Andoh Mensah, the director of the Industrial and Trade Development Department, AfDB, signed for the AfDB, the bank stated in a statement released on Tuesday.

The agreement signed in April 2019, forms part of interventions embarked by the bank to stimulate intra-African trade and boost commerce on the continent.

“The AfCFTA is going to work and we are confident that by July 1 next year, all the 55 countries would have been state parties – meaning, they would have signed and ratified the agreement and intra-Africa will start,” Muchanga was quoted to have said.

Presently, 54 African nations have signed the trade agreement set to begin on July 2020.

In July, Nigeria joined the controversial free trade agreement after President Muhammadu Buhari signed in Niamey, Niger.

Experts have said the AfCFTA will create the largest free-trade area in the world, bringing together 55 African nations with a combined economic output of $2.5 trillion a year.

The agreement is also expected to boost intra-African trade by at least $35 billion a year, facilitate easy movement of goods and cut imports by $10 billion.