{"id":36051,"date":"2023-02-19T16:41:32","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T16:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene"},"modified":"2023-02-19T17:01:04","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T17:01:04","slug":"africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene","title":{"rendered":"Africa on track to conclude AfCFTA protocols –\u00a0Mene"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>The Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, revealed that Africa is on track to complete the Protocols on digital trade as well as the Protocol on women and youth in trade.<\/p>\n

Mene was speaking at the African Union Summit held under the theme \u201cAccelerated Implementation of the AfCFTA\u201d on February 18.<\/p>\n

Once the Protocols on digital trade are accepted, they will create a framework to facilitate intra-Africa digital trade by removing duties on cross-border digital trade, adoption of common electronic authentication and e-trust mechanisms and technologies, protection of source code, among other direct or indirect trade barriers.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it is important to have specific protocols for women and youth in trade as the SMEs run by women account for close to 60 per cent of Africa\u2019s GDP, creating about 450 million jobs and the continent\u2019s youths are at the cutting edge of technological advancements, particularly developing the latest software to drive e-commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Protocol on digital Trade, among other important objectives, is set to broaden access to trade \u2013 particularly for SMEs that are led by women and young entrepreneurs \u2013 thereby addressing the critical imperative of digital financial inclusion and the need for more investment in digital financial inclusion,\u201d said Mene.<\/p>\n

This comes at a time when the AfCFTA secretariat has concluded the Protocols on Investment, Competition and Intellectual Property Rights.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that the acceleration of the implementation of the AfCFTA shall not only be in the context of concluding the establishment of the legal construct, it shall also be in accelerating commercially meaningful new market access across the intra-African market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this regard, the Council of Ministers of Trade congratulated and welcomed the Market Access Offer or Tariff Offer that the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) recently submitted, an important step in our desire to boost intra-Africa trade and create commercially meaningful opportunities for our private sector, particularly SMEs that are led by women and young Africans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mene also reported that for the first time in the economic history of Africa, Protocol on rules of origin has reached 88.3 percent convergence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the almost 5000 products that are traded in Africa, we now have a single set of rules for trade in 88.3 percent of those products. This has the potential to position our continent as an appealing investment destination and for accelerated industrial development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, there is more to do in the area of rules of origin for the automotive sector, textiles and clothing, something which actively being negotiated, he added.<\/p>\n

In January 2022, the Pan-African Payments and Settlement System (PAPSS) was launched to allow a buyer in one African country to make a payment in his or her national currency and the seller in another country receives payment in their local currency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe immediate beneficiaries of the system are SME led by women and young entrepreneurs who seek to take advantage of a market whose combined GDP is projected to be close to $7 trillion by the year 2035,\u201d Mene noted.<\/p>\n

The development was taken up by a Rwandan firm, RSwitch Ltd \u2013an e-payment operator mandated to expand the financial services ecosystem by delivering interoperable solutions \u2013with plans to take the PAPSS to countries in East, Central and Southern Africa.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Rwanda. The Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, revealed that Africa is on track to complete the Protocols on digital trade as well as the Protocol on women and youth in trade. Mene was speaking at the African Union Summit held under the theme \u201cAccelerated Implementation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":36050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-36051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nAfrica on track to conclude AfCFTA protocols -\u00a0Mene - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, revealed that Africa is on trac ...\" \/>\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\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Africa on track to conclude AfCFTA protocols -\u00a0Mene\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, revealed that Africa is on trac ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-19T16:41:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-19T17:01:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676812383.84.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\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\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Africa on track to conclude AfCFTA protocols –\u00a0Mene\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-19T16:41:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-19T17:01:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene\"},\"wordCount\":558,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676812383.84.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/africa-on-track-to-conclude-afcfta-protocols-mene\",\"name\":\"Africa on track to conclude AfCFTA protocols -\u00a0Mene - 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