Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana entrepreneurs should ready themselves for doing business with a broader market of over 1.4 billion people and a US$3.4 trillion GDP presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
With Botswana having ratified the agreement, local businesses would now start benefiting by way of exporting goods and services duty-free, stated Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mmusi Kgafela.
Speaking in an interview after the signing ceremony in Ethiopia on Sunday, he said Article 23 of the agreement stated that entry into force occurred 30 days after the 22 ratification instruments were deposited with chairperson of the AU Commission.
President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi deposited the instruments with the commission’s chairperson Mr Moussa Faki on the day of ratification.
“It is an exciting moment for us because many Batswana who wanted to enter the wider African market duty-free have urged us to ratify and the fact that we had not ratified did not sit well with them,” he said.
Minister Kgafela explained that Botswana took long to ratify the agreement because of prolonged negotiations with some fellow SACU member states revealing that they were reluctant to let go of their products.
According to the minister, AfCFTA ratification was in synch with government’s commitment towards transforming Botswana from an upper middle-income country to a high-income one.
However, the minister said a lot of capacity building needed to be done for both customs officials and entrepreneurs to ready them for the new developments.
“We have already engaged business communities in Francistown, Gaborone and Ramotswa and would do the same in other places soon,” he said.
Mr Kgafela said for Batswana businesses to penetrate the AU market, they needed to commit to producing quality products, being innovative and keeping abreast of international market developments.
Government, he said, had played its part by disbursing huge amounts of money to finance research and innovation.
All that was left was for Batswana to sink their teeth in and exploit AfCFTA, said the minister adding that Africa was pregnant with a lot of potential that could generate the much-needed employment and wealth for citizens.
The summit was held under the theme; The Year of AfCFTA: Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area Implementation.
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