UK announces AfCFTA Support Programme; FCDO to provide up to £35 mn

The support will be offered through TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and other regional partners, UK international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan recently announced.

The announcement came during AfCFTA secretariat secretary general Wamkele Mene’s visit to London to discuss how the United Kingdom can continue its work as a strategic partner to the AfCFTA.

As the world’s largest free trade area, the AfCFTA has the potential to boost Africa’s economic growth by driving industrialisation, generating jobs and delivering prosperity across the continent.

For UK businesses, the trade bloc will remove market access barriers by creating a single continental market, making it easier and more cost-effective for UK businesses to export goods and services across the 54 AfCFTA member states, according to an official release.

The programme builds on existing work from the FCDO and international trade department’s trade for development unit to strengthen partnerships and resilience in Africa.

Under the UK’s G7 presidency last year, the new British Investment International (BII) group pledged to work with other G7 Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to invest at least $80 billion in the African private sector by 2027.

Support for projects in Africa from UK Export Finance is also at its highest in decades, backing a range of infrastructure projects in countries from Ivory Coast to Uganda, with more than £2.3 billion of financial support in the past year.

The AfCFTA Support Programme also complements the UK’s broader partnership with the African Union as a multilateral institution to promote global values.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)