{"id":9431,"date":"2022-01-24T09:59:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T09:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2"},"modified":"2022-01-24T10:30:42","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T10:30:42","slug":"corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2","title":{"rendered":"Corporate Africa lacks information on continental free trade, CEO survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) risks being held back as most of the continent\u2019s chief executives don\u2019t know where to find information about it, a new survey finds.<\/p>\n

Almost two-thirds of respondents (62%) to the survey published in December by PAFTRAC, the Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee, said they do not know where to access information about the AfCFTA.<\/p>\n

Almost everyone surveyed uses the Internet to try and find information, with national and local governments the next most popular source far behind. \u201cThis demonstrates the importance of having a central, online and easily accessible platform that can consolidate all AfCFTA-related information,\u201d says the report.<\/p>\n

The survey was carried out from August to October. It gathered responses from 400 respondents in 44 African countries, plus the Americas and the Middle East. A plus point is of ease of use of the information that is available. Once they have found it, only 10.5% of respondents found it \u201cnot easy\u201d to use.<\/p>\n

Digital solutions such as an online platform to connect buyers and sellers (76%) or an online resource centre to act as a \u201cone-stop-shop\u201d (66%) were the most widely requested AfCFTA policy interventions.<\/p>\n

Digital solutions were seen as more important than in-country AfCFTA offices. The report\u2019s policy recommendations include increasing the supply of trade and market information to help companies identify new markets.<\/p>\n

Politics Trumps Covid-19 The African private sector remains dominated by SMEs. Almost half of responding businesses have an annual income of less than $50,000 and 22.5% earn between $50,000 and $250,000.<\/p>\n

Just 1.2% have annual revenue over $10b. The policy should focus on building SME capacity to comply with quality standards, packaging requirements and customs procedures, the report says.<\/p>\n

There also needs to be help for SMEs in formulating long-term business plans. There also needs to be better access to credit and long-term financing mechanisms, and stronger linkages between SMEs and large exporters.<\/p>\n

The respondents were very confident in AfCFTA itself. Only slightly over 2% of participants believed that the free trade area will have a negative impact on their business.<\/p>\n

Over 71% of respondents said that AfCFTA will encourage them to invest to grow their business. More than half (57%) said that AfCFTA will open up new markets for regional exports.<\/p>\n

Political effects, including the policy environment and political instability, were the factors seen as most likely to hamper business growth, being cited by 73%.<\/p>\n

Tax and finance-related effects were only slightly behind 72%. Roughly half the participants mentioned the same three constraints: transit and customs issues related to cross-border trade; tariffs; and security.<\/p>\n

Covid-19 was seen as much less important. Only 35% of respondents put the pandemic among their top five inhibiting growth factors for business growth.<\/p>\n

Within the category of finance constraints, access to trade finance and investment capital was given as the two biggest handicaps to regional trade. Cross-border payment systems were seen as the least important inhibiting factor. Bottom Line AfCFTA won\u2019t reach its full potential while SME CEOs are struggling to find online information on it.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) risks being held back as most of the continent\u2019s chief executives don\u2019t know where to find information about it, a new survey finds. Almost two-thirds of respondents (62%) to the survey published in December by PAFTRAC, the Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee, said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,6,8,16],"tags":[1640,233,245,474,241],"class_list":["post-9431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-afcfta","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-african","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"\nCorporate Africa lacks information on continental free trade, CEO survey finds - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) risks being held back as most of the continent\u2019s chief executives don\u2019t ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Corporate Africa lacks information on continental free trade, CEO survey finds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) risks being held back as most of the continent\u2019s chief executives don\u2019t ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-24T09:59:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-24T10:30:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/01\/img-61ee7fb253796.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"731\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"419\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Corporate Africa lacks information on continental free trade, CEO survey finds\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-24T09:59:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-24T10:30:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2\"},\"wordCount\":517,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/01\/img-61ee7fb253796.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AfCFTA\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"African\",\"Mauritius\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/corporate-africa-lacks-information-on-continental-free-trade-ceo-survey-finds-2\",\"name\":\"Corporate Africa lacks information on continental free trade, CEO survey finds - 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