The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), conformed by 54 of the 55 African countries, is the first step to achieve the objective of a continental single market. With a journey that started in March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, when the AfCFTA Agreement was opened to signature, significant milestones have been registered that include 47 ratifications of the Agreement to date, and recent endorsement of the Competition Policy, Investment and Intellectual Property Rights Protocols, by the 36th AU Ho/SG Summit  on the 19th of February, 2023. 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. Despite the high political momentum and the strong economic rationale, realizing the AfCFTA will require strengthening institutional capacities to complete negotiations and to implement and honour the agreements, with the active involvement of the private sector and effective cooperation between stakeholders at continental, regional and national level.  

Description of the TE TAF

The Team Europe Technical Assistance Facility to support the AfCFTA and Continental Economic Integration (TE TAF) seeks to contribute to the African economic Integration agenda through mainly the realization of the AfCFTA. Funded by the EU, Agence Française de Development, the German Ministry of Development Cooperation (BMZ) and Sweden, the Team Europe Technical Assistance Facility will be implemented by GIZ, Expertise France, and FIAPP under the guidance of the AfCFTA Secretariat. The TE – TAF is implemented through the Project Management Unit (PMU), based at the AfCFTA Secretariat, in Accra, Ghana, whose mandate is to mobilize technical assistance to deliver interventions that foster to enhance implementation of the agreement. Each implementing partner agency (Expertise France, GIZ and FIIAPP) is represented in the PMU. 

It has two specific objectives: (1). Secretariat – with focus on strengthening the institutional capacity to coordinate negotiations, as well as provide oversight on the implementation of the Agreement, and (2). to be an efficient, reactive and flexible mechanism to answer to the needs of the African Union (AfCFTA Secretariat, AUC and some AU Specialized agencies), RECs, AU Member States and other potential continental partners and regional private sector organisations, working on fostering the AfCFTA and economic continental integration.  

Justification 

The AU Commission, specifically the Department of Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Mining (ETTIM), plays a key role in the implementation of the AfCFTA, providing continental trade, and industry policy oversight and coordination responsibilities, to drive harmonization of legal instruments across member states.  Output 2 under TE - TAF, focuses on; The Capacity of AUC to advance Continental Economic Industrial Policies complementary to the AfCFTA is strengthened.  In line with this Output, ETTIM has been driving implementation of key industrialisation and trade policy frameworks that include the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA), AU SME Strategy, Africa Union Commodity Strategy, the Boosting Intra - African Trade (BIAT), and the Africa Mining Vision. The African Union Commission (AUC) Department of Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals (ETTIM) is coordinating the implementation of the AU Commodity Strategy, and working with RECs, and Member States, to ensure its domestication, given its centrality towards driving a resource-based industrialisation agenda in the continent. 

The African Union Commodity Strategy   (AUCS) and its Action Plan, which was endorsed by the 35th Assembly (Summit) of Ho/SG in February 2022, is one of the flagship projects under the AU Ten Years Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063. Minerals Resources Development, will therefore, play a critical role towards driving sustainability of the implementation of the AfCFTA, through mineral beneficiation initiatives as part of cross-border regional value chain development, to fuel a resource-based industrialisation path-way for the continent. Furthermore, the implementation of the strategy is in line with the mandate of the Minerals Resources Unit under the Division of Industry, Innovation and Minerals which was set to provide technical support, advocacy, and develop strategic policies under the AUC-ETTIM Department. To translate these bold and noble pan-African trade and industrialisation initiatives into action, during the period November 2022 to January 2023, the ETTIM – TAF 2023 Joint Work Programme has been developed, and is now guiding implementation of these strategic objectives.  Natural resource beneficiation, can be an entry point for inclusive, and sustainable industrialisation path-ways for Africa, with potential to promote Regional Value Chains, whilst creating conditions to sustain the AfCFTA implementation.