COVID-19: ‘Don’t waste this crisis’ — Obasanjo asks African leaders to adopt technology in implementing AfCFTA
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on African leaders to adopt technology in implementing the African continental free trade agreement (AfCFTA).
AfCFTA is a trade agreement between 54 AU member states, with the goal of creating a single, unified market for goods and services facilitated by free movement and a single-currency union.
The implementation of AfCFTA, which was earlier scheduled for July 1, was postponed to January 1, 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In an article published on Saturday, Obasanjo said the implementation of AfCFTA may pose high financial costs on countries amid the coronavirus pandemic, which requires testing of persons moving into various African countries.
He said African leaders should be concerned with how to control the spread of the disease while allowing much-needed economic activity to provide for and protect livelihoods.
The ex-president recommended the adoption of technology to reduce movement of persons while ensuring the free movement of goods across Africa.
“At the peak of the crisis, an Africa-wide steering committee to manage the crisis (AFTCOR) was instituted and backed up with a common fund mobilised through the continental private sector. Some of our most renowned leaders were appointed as envoys to ensure that Africa speaks with one voice,” the article read.
“And, everywhere, the case was made that the crisis was both the strongest spur and the best opportunity to accelerate the emergence of the single market, through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and thereby increase self-reliance and resilience.
“We are at the most critical juncture of the crisis. Reopening our borders and relaxing lockdown policies in our individual countries requires that we remain vigilant. This is the only way we can ensure that we give our economies a much-needed boost while recovering from the devastation of Covid-19.
“Already, we were constrained by Covid-19 to miss the much anticipated 2020 start of trading under AfCTFA. We cannot afford to miss the new January 2021 date if we are to make any serious progress with economic recovery in this era of Covid-19.
“I believe that a major threat to AfCTFA trading – and indeed general economic activities on our continent – will be a spike in Covid-19 infections due to cross-border movement as we reopen for trade and business. As we have seen elsewhere in the world, technology plays a critical role in helping us deal with this threat.”
While commending African leaders for efforts in curbing the spread of the virus, he said the crisis remains a major motivation in adopting technological solutions to address many challenges in the continent.
“These smart solutions, often propelled by digital technologies, such as PanaBIOS, to enable cross-border travel without risking a surge of infections; and the others in the AVRIVA framework, designed to allow African governments to cross the January 2021 timeline for start of trading under AfCFTA by moving all outstanding negotiations online, are urgent and critical. As such, they deserve the full support of the member states,” it read.
“Others like TribeID, which aims to transform the capacity of e-Commerce platforms to make African SMEs the beating heart of AfCFTA are of huge structural importance if AfCFTA is to become more than just a piece of paper, another Yamoussoukro Agreement – a deal to open African skies, which has not been fully and properly implemented.
“It is the fervent hope of all Pan-Africanists that this continent shall not “waste this crisis”. That we shall embrace this upcoming reopening to collaborate intensively in order to showcase to the world the ingenuity, grit and foresight with which the African, so often marginalised in the international system, is blessed. The pandemic must be turned to an opportunity to flip the narrative.”
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