It was a great time to be African as African leaders met on Sunday to launch the Continental Free Trade Area Agreement. If successful, would unite 1.3 billion people, create a $3.4 trillion #economic bloc and usher in a new era of development.

After four years of talks, an agreement to form a 55 nation trade bloc was reached in March, paving the way for Sunday’s African Union summit in Niger.

Nigeria’s Pres. Muhammadu Buhari and Benin’s Pres. Patrice Talon signed the AfCFTA agreement, making the two countries the 53rd and 54th signatories respectively. Eritrea is yet to sign.

Gabon and  Equatorial Guinea deposited their instruments of #ratification with the AU Commission, bringing the total number of countries that have deposited to 27. Ghana was selected to host the AfCFTA secretariat.

AfCFTA will start trading in July 2020 to give member states time to adopt the #framework and prepare their #business #communities for the “emerging market,” says Albert Muchanga. Furthermore, he said, “We haven’t yet agreed on rules of origin and tariff #concessions, but the framework we have is enough to start trading ‪on July 1, 2020‬”.

This a step to making Africa great again. We at MIPAD are happy about this news and commend the African Union for this.