AfCFTA: The Challenges Ahead

A few countries like Nigeria (one of the last few to sign on to the agreement) argue that trade liberalization may not necessarily work in their favour. Generally, intra-Africa trade activities do not feature high on Nigeria’s list of priorities. As a country, Nigeria is more dependent on its exports to countries outside Africa. Recently, in an effort to reduce its dependence on imports and encourage local manufacturing, Nigeria closed its borders, increasing its protectionism measures. Any country may decide to carry out some temporary protectionism measures if they feel some internal industries are negatively affected. These areas need to be scrutinized more closely to ensure all economies, large or small, are comfortable with the trade liberalization that comes with the AfCFTA agreement.
Some countries also have unilateral deals with overseas countries, e.g. Kenya is negotiating a trade deal with the US, while the UK, following its exit from the EU, is seeking trade deals with some AU countries, individually. It is yet to be seen how AfCFTA will handle these types of arrangements, but the growing trend to seek such trade deals abroad may lead to problems in the future.
There are also concerns that smaller countries may not be able to put proper structures in place that will allow them to maximize the vast benefits AfCFTA will purportedly bring. Liberalization may end up hurting the smaller economies. The agreement promises to protect smaller economies from losing out to the more significant economies by having a differential liberalization schedule.
There is no doubting that many other concerns and issues will need to be ironed out as time progresses, but overall, once the necessary technological, digital, financial governance, industrialization upgrades and platforms are set up and firmly in place, Africa can start to look forward to a brighter future with the full implementation of AfCFTA.