{"id":66815,"date":"2026-02-16T19:03:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afcfta-secretariat-and-agra-partner-for-trade-growth"},"modified":"2026-02-16T20:03:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T20:03:03","slug":"afcfta-secretariat-and-agra-partner-for-trade-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afcfta-secretariat-and-agra-partner-for-trade-growth","title":{"rendered":"AfCFTA Secretariat and AGRA Partner for Trade Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong> <\/span>The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and AGRA have reinforced their strategic partnership to accelerate intra-African trade, positioning agriculture as a central engine of farmer prosperity, value addition, and regional food security.<\/p>\n<p>At a high-level event on the 14th of February on the margins of the 39th African Union Summit, Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, and Alice Ruhweza, President of AGRA, formalised this commitment through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding marking a new phase of cooperation with a strong<\/p>\n<p>focus on translating the AfCFTA legal framework into practical outcomes for African agricultural markets.<\/p>\n<p>The partnership comes at a pivotal moment as Africa advances implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.<\/p>\n<p>With 50 countries having ratified the Agreement, attention shifts from legal commitment to practical implementation, particularly in agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe AfCFTA offers Africa a historic opportunity to shift from exporting raw commodities to building regional value chains that create jobs, raise farmer incomes and strengthen food security,\u201d said Wamkele Mene.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur partnership with AGRA is about moving from ambition to execution, ensuring that agricultural trade delivers tangible benefits for producers, processors and consumers across the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Through the AfCFTA Agri-Trade Action Plan, which proposes several interventions, including, among others, reducing non-tariff barriers, improving trade facilitation, promoting value addition and mobilising investment in regional agricultural value chains, the collaboration will advance agricultural trade under AfCFTA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrade will not transform Africa\u2019s food systems unless farmers and agri-enterprises are able to produce competitively, meet international quality standards, and connect to reliable markets,\u201d said Alice Ruhweza, President of AGRA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis partnership is about making intra-African food trade work in practice\u2014linking policy to delivery so that agriculture becomes a driver of inclusive growth, resilience and shared prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Together, the AfCFTA Secretariat and AGRA will drive this partnership toward practical, farmer-centered action, enabling agriculture to fully leverage integrated African markets and deliver inclusive growth, resilience, and shared prosperity across the continent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Lesotho<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and AGRA have reinforced their strategic partnership to accelerate intra-African trade, positioning agriculture as a central engine of farmer prosperity, value addition, and regional food security. At a high-level event on the 14th of February on the margins of the 39th African Union Summit, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":66814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-66815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AfCFTA Secretariat and AGRA Partner for Trade Growth - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Lesotho. 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