Welcome to my blog, which starts today, 1st of January 2021. The name of the blog „Zingatia Afrika“ is Swahili for „focus on Africa“, the subject of the blog. I am an economist with more than 20 years of experience in analytics and practical support for economic, private sector and trade development in Africa as well as international relations between African nations and the „rest of the world“.
I lived in East Africa (Kenia, Ethiopia) for two years in the 2000s and have since traveled to more than 30 African countries, mostly professionally but always also with a personal perspective. My focus at present are industrialization and job creation through digitalization and trade integration; urbanization and green growth. Furthermore, I am interested and fascinated by the cultural and societal diversity in Africa and since early childhood enthusiastic about African nature and especially wild life.
Today starts trade across Africa following the protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA creates a market of 1.3 billion Africans. The World Bank evokes a change of paradigm – the AfCFTA has not only the potential to significantly increase the intra-African trade but also the integration of African firms into global value chains and radically reduce poverty. With the exception of Eritrea, all Member States of the African Union have signed the agreement, 34 Member States have ratified it. The AfCFTA is by far the most important flagship of the African Union: The hope is massive in Africa that the implementation of the free trade area will reverse the negative economic fall-out of the Corona crisis and become a motor for industrialization, job creation and inclusive growth.
The AfCFTA is fueled by high level political engagement, which created an impressive dynamic since the start of negotiations in 2015. Essential for the success of the AfCFTA will be that political tailwind will translate into rapid implementation. For the AU, the top priority are the outstanding ratifications, to master the regulatory and practical challenges for implementation and to advance the outstanding negotiations for the AfCFTA package.
Progress and developments towards the implementation of the AfCFTA will be recorded and discussed in this blog; other issues will feature too such as migration and other mega-trends for the development of the continent, the EU-Africa partnership but also matters outside of politics and economics, namely culture, history, nature and livestyle in African countries.
If I have aroused your curiosity, please come back to Zingatia Afrika.