AfCFTA chief: Trump’s policies offer Africa an opportunity to pivot

Wamkele Mene, the secretary general of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, says that the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump and the end of the US’s longstanding African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) provide an opportunity for Africa to pivot from dependence and external support to self-sufficiency.

“The point I make is that Donald Trump is doing what Donald Trump is doing for the US. We have to do what we have to do for our continent,” he told the ongoing Intra African Trade Fair (IATF2025) in Algiers, Algeria.

“In the short-term, we’re going to suffer, but in the medium to long-term, we have the capability to pivot by leveraging on the AfCFTA, leveraging on trade finance, on all of the tools that our development finance institutions are able to mobilise and put at our disposal. I do not see why we cannot succeed in three to four years’ time.”

Building blocks of trade success

Mene believes the foundation has already been laid and the building blocks put in place.

“That means that we will have to deploy tools – such as the adjustment fund; trade finance that is affordable, cost effective and accessible; the transit guarantee scheme; a customs system that is effective and user-friendly – medium to long-term for us to boost intra-Africa trade. I believe we’ve got to focus on these key objectives.”

The secretary general acknowledges that there are challenges and constraints.

“I think there are challenges that are within our control as the AfCFTA; and then there are challenges outside of our control but that have an impact on intra-Africa trade. The most unique challenge and constraint which is within our control is the need for us to accelerate and enhance custom systems interoperability, custom systems harmonisation. This is really the critical part of what we’re trying to do.”

“We have a shared vision that customs in Africa must not just be about revenue collection, but must be about trade facilitation. And this is a very important mind shift that that we have to make. The second challenge which is outside of our control is the cost of transport and logistics.”

Africa currently faces an infrastructure gap which estimates put at between $130bn and $175bn per annum. The infrastructure gap impacts trade in multiple ways.

“When goods moved for the first time from Kenya to Ghana, it took three months for those goods to arrive in Ghana, largely because of the cost of transport and logistics,” says Mene.

“We have to rely and leverage on our development finance institutions so that we find ways of reducing the cost of transport and logistics. The infrastructure deficit of $150bn is a conservative estimate.”

Doing more will take the form of expanding the offerings available for tackling the challenge, one of which he said is bringing in “private sector capital into infrastructure, whether it is private equity or sovereign loan funds. The last point I would make is that the private sector is the driver of intra-Africa trade.”

Making trade accessible to all

Mene says the ultimate measure of success will be how the AfCFTA impacts the continent’s informal traders and young entrepreneurs.

“To me, really the measure of success shall not necessarily be trade flow as an end in itself. The measure of success is going to be how many SMEs [small and medium enterprises] can say that they actually are part of Africa’s intra-Africa trade. How many informal traders and how many young people, young entrepreneurs: that’s the measure of success.

“Trade numbers, yes, that is good, but the real measure of success is the extent to which we have an inclusive trade agreement that all countries, big economies, small economies, big corporations, micro SMEs, all of them can benefit from.”