Dr. Fareed Arthur, Coordinator of the National AfCFTA Coordination Office, has urged African leaders to prioritize and start thinking about regional and continental policies instead of national ones to ensure that, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area is fully functional and operational to the benefit of the member countries.

Dr. Arthur made this call at the AfCFTA Market Access Readiness Training for Women and Youth-led/own MSMEs in Kumasi, funded by UNDP on the importance of market readiness for MSMEs, and the understanding AfCFTA, export readiness, regulatory and compliance requirements, finding the right market for their products, building a strong brand for African markets and choosing logistics options for export trade.

He disclosed that the objectives of the training were to empower women and youth-led MSMEs to be market-ready by raising awareness about what it takes to get products to consumers in a targeted African market including AfCFTA procedures, export procedures, packaging, labeling, and logistics management.

He indicated that the training would help identify potentials that would be introduced to the African market.

According to him, the challenges of the AfCFTA are the issues of logistics because the continent is divided into fifty -five countries.

He noted that different countries with different laws, and different national laws have strict policies but under the AfCFTA, the objective is gradually to remove the barriers and to open up Africa into one economic zone.

Dr. Arthur said the success story is that out of the fifty-five (55) countries, forty-seven (47) have rectified AfCFTA which has never happened in the African Union.

According to him, the forty-seven countries are members of AfCFTA which means that the market has already grown from the original backyard like ECOWAS, hence the existence of the market alone is a high opportunity that every country should take advantage of.

He disclosed that the AfCFTA is still focused on making policies to suit national interest, and for that matter, member countries should now start working together to develop regional policies.

He said they are not going to remove the logistics barriers in Ghana, adding that, logistics barriers that connect Ghana with other countries, and making decisions in Ghana while the neighboring countries do not take a decision would not work.

He stressed the need for more interactions among African leaders to try and solve the issues at both regional and continental levels.