African Members of Parliament are gathered in Midrand, South Africa where on Wednesday, they will decide on their new President and Speaker who will take the helm of leadership to actualize the AfCFTA, among other pressing objectives of the Pan-African Parliament. One of the most prominent presidential candidates and the longest-serving member of the parliament, Honorable Senator Chief Fortune Charumbira of Zimbabwe, is poised to occupy the top seat from the Southern Region.
Last week, Chief Charumbira rounded off a year-long campaign with visits to several African embassies including Algeria, DRC, and Saharawi in South Africa. The 60 year-old candidate dominates the election with a record of accomplishments at the continental and national parliaments, and experience in AU processes making him the likely candidate in this upcoming election.
The landmark African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA) which came into effect in May 2021, is being banked on to promote inclusive growth and sustainable development on the African continent. As the continental parliament goes into the election this week, the organ comprised of Members of Parliament from African Union member states is expected to vote in a new Bureau that will lead to the creation of robust legal frameworks that will liberalize the African market.
When implemented successfully, the agreement is expected to set Africa on a path to becoming a dominant single market in the world, worth USD$3.4 trillion in GDP terms. African legislators are now tasked to tackle the essential challenges related to integration, trade, and good governance. The AfCFTA agreement is now in the phase of implementation but its success in boosting intra-African trade will require the African Union to establish an effective mitigation framework for the challenges identified by economic experts.
The legislative body of the Union, which is the Pan-African Parliament is mandated and equipped with the relevant capacity to establish a legal and legislative framework to ensure the implementation, adoption, and actualization of the free-trade agreement across member states.
The free trade agreement remains one of the key objectives fundamentally premised on facilitating the movement of persons, creating a single market for goods and services, and promoting industrial development and sustainable and inclusive socio-economic growth.
The Parliament is tasked to harmonize competing regional economic agreements, ensure complete ratification by all member states and develop model laws covering trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights, and competition policy.
Once implemented, the agreement is set to reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and facilitate the free movement of people and labor, ease the right of residence, right of establishment, and investment, AfCFTA will unite all 55 member states of the African Union under a common market with a population of over 1.2 billion people. With a booming middle class and the prospects of eliminating import duties and reduction in non-tariff barriers, AfCFTA has the potential to boost intra-African trade by 52.3 percent and transform it into the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization.
The PAP is expected to bring together leaders of various regional economic communities to review existing strategic frameworks, and existing regional or multinational trade agreements in the various African States, evaluate the potential development impacts, and extrapolate relevant factors to ensure that the existing agreements are coherent and supportive of sustainable development in the continent.
Through this platform, the continent can sensitize member states on the different routes that regions have adopted to pursue economic integration, offer a unique opportunity to understand how to accommodate the varying development levels, articulate efficient models, and establish a platform for harmonization so that the various regimes and models adopted by member states operate in a manner that enhances coherence in an already complex trading system.
Political analysts from across the continent have expressed confidence that Chief Fortune Charumbira’s background as an institutional change, performance improvement, and leadership development expert demonstrates that he embodies the requisite intellect to sustain the complexity of the implementation of the agreement. The traditional leader is said to be the most qualified to initiate the needed institutional framework to advance the implementation and promotion the continent’s values and development.
Undoubtedly, the efficiency of the platform which will serve as a vehicle for the AfCFTA, will require a leader with the integrity, knowledge, and intellectual depth to analyze the legislative underpinnings of the frameworks, establish a coherent mechanism for achieving the objectives of the agreement, and articulate concrete institutional framework of coordination and harmonization with existing regional communities and trading ties with other partners.
