Addis Ababa, February 14, 2025 (FMC) – Center for Accelerated Women’s Economic Empowerment (CAWEE) in partnership with KONRAD ADENAUER STIFTUNG (KAS) organized High Level Meeting on “Stock-taking Progress of the AfCFTA : What’s on the Table for Women Traders” in Addis Ababa on Friday.
Former Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, members of the House of People’s Representatives, high government officials, Secretary General of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, President of Africa Business Council Dr. Amani Asfour, among other representatives of regional institutions, were in attendance of the high-level meeting.
In her welcoming remarks, the Founder and Executive Director of CAWEE, Nigest Haile (PhD) stated that the meeting will serve as a platform to facilitate enabling condition that would help African women in business can to benefit from the provisions of the AfCFTA.
Established in 2004, CAWEE has been providing women exporters with various services including trainings in international trade, business counseling, digital presence, and facilitating access to finance, organizing and facilitating trade missions and trade shows. Through support of CAWEE, lots of women in business have diversified their product lines, transformed their businesses and entered to export markets and have expanded their export bases, she explained.
CAWEE is expanding its presence in Africa, Nigest said, explaining that the organization has already opened its office in Nairobi, Kenya, and is in the process of having its presence in Accra, Ghana and Togo, Lome, to reach more women in the continent and enable them to benefit from the provisions of the AfCFTA.
CAWEE an e-commerce platform for Intra-African Trade which has brought together over 200 companies on board from Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda, where quite good number of countries have shown interest to join this e-commerce platform.
Secretary General of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, for his part, said: “About five years ago now, the heads of states and government of the African Union, when they convened in the city of Addis Ababa, decided that they will accelerate a long-standing vision of integrating Africa’s economy to enable Africa to become globally competitive, to create jobs, and also to ensure that the continent is competitive, global.”
AfCFTA member states agreed that they will reduce and eliminate tariffs. The tariff reduction formula was agreed to, he said, adding “And we agreed that by the 3rd year of implementation of the AFCFTA, 97% of products traded in Africa will be traded at zero duty.”
“We can’t achieve the goals of AfCFTA only with efforts of individual countries, calling for collaborative efforts among member states. That is why as we speak today, there are 48 countries that have ratified the agreement establishing the AFCFTA, which combined presents us with a value proposition in terms of market size of 3.4 trillion USD that is consumer spending and business spending, with a population of 1.4 billion people. We negotiated far-reaching obligations that really drive Africa’s economic reforms in areas encompassing the service sector, agriculture, manufacturing, and a range of other very important sectors of Africa’s economy.”
We are now, and we are working with the private sector in Africa, we are working with African Business Council, we are working with the Pan African Chamber of Commerce, to develop commercially meaningful trade opportunities for women in the continent, Wamkele Mene noted.
“The protocol of AfCFTA places obligations on governments. This is where we are discussing now the commercial meaningfulness of that protocol. It’s not enough for us to just say we are the only ones who have done it. The second important part of the protocol is it enables us to identify specific value chains, specific sectors of the economy where we can support these women-owned businesses by bringing in investors who can support, invest in those businesses,” Wamkele Mene underscored.
Lukas Kupfernagel, Head of KAS Ethiopia Country Office and AU Liaison, for his part, stated that Africa has a potential for realizing a competitive market, stressing the need to exert concerted efforts to address the challenges in the sector.
Lukas reiterated the commitment of KAS to work in collaboration with African partners including the AU to support the efforts for a competitive market in the continent.
Former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, for his part, underscored the significance of increasing access to financing and accelerating digitization to enhance the role of women business leaders in realizing a completive African market. He highlighted the role of women in business in archiving the goals of AfCFTA.
The AfCFTA was signed in Kigali in March 2018 and officially came in effect as of May 30, 2019, a landmark agreement that aims to create a single, liberalized market across Africa; Signed by 54 of the 55 AU member states, out of the 54, 49 countries including Ethiopia have ratified the agreement and made it part of their law.