UNECA Calls for Enhance Intra-Africa Trade

Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on Tuesday called on African countries to embrace digitization, enhanced intra-Africa trade and better land-policy systems to address the demands of rapid population growth and urbanization in Africa.
On the theme of “Promoting Sustainable Land Governance in Africa for Accelerating Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA),” the high-level conference runs from Nov. 21-24 at the African Union (AU) headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
The UNECA chief said the AfCFTA, if well implemented, holds the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, boost Africa’s income by 450 billion U.S. dollars, while connecting 1.3 billion people.
Noting that Africa is committed to agro industrialization for value addition and economic diversification, he said the youth can “tap into the growing agriculture and agribusiness sector, projected to be 1 trillion U.S. dollars by 2030.”