Addis Ababa — The Economic Commission for Africa presented an online trading platform Thursday, that will facilitate trading between buyers and suppliers when the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement starts next year.
Known as the African Trade Exchange (ATEX), the business-to-business e-commerce platform will not only improve cross-border trade but also provide businesses with quality products from verified African suppliers in an efficient way at reduced average trading costs based on AfCFTA rules.
The goal for its creation was to provide a marketplace for buyers and suppliers to be able to transact and buy good quality products from the continent based on the AfCFTA rules, said Almoustapha Cisse, ECA's Acting Director, Division of Technology, Innovation, Publication and Knowledge Management, who made the presentation.
He said the Afreximbank, with whom it is collaborating to deliver the project, would serve as broker for most of the payment systems and the logistics which currently posed "a great challenge" to the continent.
ECA's Director of Regional Integration and Trade Division Stephen Karingi, speaking on the importance of the electronic mode, described how many African small businesses went digital during the COVID-19 pandemic when supply chains were broken and they needed to identify new ones.
"One of the things we've seen during this COVID-19 is the importance of having credible supply chains," and you can't have credible supply chains unless businesses are working together, he said, adding, "ATEX promises a platform that can help anchor AfCFTA" which commences trading on 1 January 2021.
For Vitalis Uzor, representative of the Afreximbank, "Payments are critical to international trade." According to him, ATEX would develop an ecosystem of banks on the continent to support the traditional payment mechanisms for transactions completed on the platform.
In his own remarks, Francis Mangeni, head of Trade Promotions and Programmes at the AfCFTA Secretariat, expressed confidence that with the successful operation of integrated payment systems in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), it would equally deliver an efficient and profitable platform for the continent.
Also speaking, Ngone Diop, the Director of ECA's West Africa Sub-Regional office, said the platform had the potential for delivering an inclusive and shared prosperity that promises to leave no African behind.
The AfCFTA provides the opportunity for Africa to create the world's largest free trade area, with the potential to unite more than 1.2 billion people, in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development. The AfCFTA has the potential to generate a range of benefits through supporting trade creation, structural transformation, productive employment and poverty reduction.
The agreement entered into force on 30 May 2019 having been ratified by the required 22 countries. Currently, 54 countries have signed, and 30 countries have ratified it.
