Context

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), signed by 54 of the 55 African countries, seeks to achieve the objective of a continental single market. As of June 2025, 49 member-States have ratified the Agreement. Significant progress has also been registered on the negotiations across Phase I (Trade in Goods and Services and dispute settlement) and the recent finalisation of Phase II (Competition Policy, Investment and Intellectual Property Rights protocols). Leveraging the Guided Trade initiative that was piloted across 7 countries in 2022, the AfCFTA Secretariat implemented measures to scale up the tool, with the number of countries on the programme increasing to 39 by 2024, confirming the confidence among SPs to trade under the Agreement.  

This landmark agreement offers significant promise for the continent’s transformation and will open up new economies of scale and create stronger foundations for economic diversification. The AfCFTA is expected to boost intra-African trade, to promote structural transformation and to generate significant employment opportunities in Africa, especially for women and young people. One of the Africa Union's Agenda 2063 Aspirations is to increase intra-African trade from less than 12% in 2013 to over 50% by 2045, as well as Africa's share in global trade from 2% to 12%. This can only be realised if the AfCFTA Agreement is implemented wholeheartedly. The AfCFTA is thus, envisaged to be a key driver for Africa to realize the structural transformation and industrialization of the continent as envisaged in the AU Agenda 2063.

Despite the high political momentum and the strong economic rationale, realising the AfCFTA will require strengthening institutional capacities to complete negotiations and to implement the Agreement, with the active involvement of the private sector and effective cooperation between stakeholders at continental, regional and national level. Against this backdrop, the AfCFTA Secretariat has prioritised initiatives to accelerate the domestication of the Agreement across state parties, coupled with mobilising all stakeholders to drive the process leading to a one African market.

 A major highlight of this programming thrust/approach would be roll-out initiatives that seek to rally all relevant stakeholders (state parties, AU Bodies, private sector, CSOs, development parties, and academia) who have important roles to play to accelerate the implementation of the AfCFTA. A central activity in that space would be for the AfCFTA Secretariat to steer an effective coordination mechanism that leverages the collective capacity of these key stakeholders towards an effective implementation of the Agreement.

 Justification and objective

The success of the Africa Economic Integration agenda hinges on the effective implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement. Against the political will of our Africa leaders demonstrated through the 47 ratifications of the Agreement to date, the challenge remains that of translating this political commitment into tangible trade across the state parties. Whilst the AfCFTA Secretariat has the institutional responsibility to drive this process, collective capacity should be leveraged across all key stakeholders to deliver this goal. Thus, close collaboration with all relevant organs and specialized agencies of the African Union, regional mechanisms and RECs, in line with their respective mandates will be key to fast track the implementation of the AfCFTA for the benefit of Africa’s population.

The success of the AfCFTA will be anchored on the delivery of effective support towards key stakeholders’ involvement to engender inclusivity, and some measure of broad ownership of the fruits of economic integration. The implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement is thus by necessity, a complex and highly collaborative undertaking, drawing on the expertise and experience of all key stakeholders anchored on an effective coordination mechanism. It is against this context, and based on priorities identified by the AfCFTA Secretariat, that Expertise France, through the EU TAF will provide technical assistance to the Directorate of Coordination and Programmes (DCP). 

An Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Implementation & Coordination Expert is being recruited to provide technical support to the Directorate to enhance its effective management of the AfCFTA agenda with specific focus on delivering targeted technical inputs that seek to accelerate implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.

The main objective of the assignment is to coordinate specific activities and produce strategic documents that will foster to enhance the implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement to ensure that state parties and stakeholders maximise benefits from the liberal trade regime. The Technical Expert will have the primary role of assisting the AfCFTA Secretariat in delivering an effective, coordinated and oversight mechanism across the AfCFTA agenda, through among other key mandates, rallying key multi-stakeholders with a keen interest on Africa’s Economic Integration agenda to facilitate effective implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.