Africa-Press – Botswana. A revolutionary moment! That is President Advocate Duma Boko’s description of Africa’s quest to usher in the digital revolution for the motherland through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He was addressing the first-ever AfCFTA Digital Trade forum at Lusaka’s Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Zambia, which started yesterday and ends today.
President Boko suggested that those championing the revolution in the likes of technocrats should move with speed while they also take time to ensure that ordinary people benefitted a great deal from the new frontier being digital trade.
The inaugural forum held under the theme: Boosting Digital Trade to Accelerate AfCFTA Implementation, has drawn over 1 000 delegates from across Africa and beyond.
“We appreciate that a revolution does not go on for an inordinate amount of time. If it is truly a revolution it has to be compressed in time and concentrated on target,” he said, calling for the need to set time frames for realising concrete deliverables that would benefit Africans.
All the hard work put in by those in the echelons of power should thus ultimately benefit the masses who are the primary target. Anything that stands in the way of achieving a seamless flow of digital trade, according to President Boko should be taken out of the way so that robust intra-trade by Africans and African states can become a reality and improve livelihoods.
Enablers such as requisite infrastructure for a thriving digital trade, he stated, were of essence if this epic revolution was to take place as well as empower and transform the lives of ordinary Africans.
He therefore pledged his commitment to ensuring that digital trade within the African continent became a solid ground to emancipate the 1.4 billion inhabitants of the African continent. “I call upon others across the African continent who sit in the highest echelons of leadership in their countries to transcend words, move into action and [transform] the Africa Free Trade Agreement into a platform for meaningful empowerment and transformation of the lives of our people,’ he said.
For his part, President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia echoed President Boko’s words that digital trade could become a useful platform to change the fortunes of the continent from difficult times of the past to a better life for all.
All rigidity, he stated, must be done away with as a matter of urgency and that includes creating an enabling environment for the business sector to chip in to complement governments’ endeavours to uplift the lives of the masses.
“Small, micro and medium enterprises have got no chance of survival if we do not create enabling environments for them to conduct their business with minimal delays,” he said.
Geo-political instabilities and rising protectionism, President Hichilema said, needed to be circumvented to ensure progress and the thriving of digital trade.
The delegates are expected to engage in knowledge exchange, policy dialogue and innovation showcases to unlock opportunities in e-commerce, fintech, digital infrastructure and entrepreneurship.
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