\The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat and AFRICA24 Media Group, a Kenyan-based news channel, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday to boost intra-African trade through the media.
The MoU is part of the AfCFTA strategy to let Africans own and shape the narrative about intra-African trade through cooperation.
During the signing ceremony, Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA secretariat, said the partnership with the media group is important to raise awareness of the priority objectives of the free trade area.
“In particular, the media group will raise awareness about the establishment of an economic area for the benefit of all the peoples and countries of our continent,” Mene stated.
Mene urged the Kenyan-based media organization to live up to its mandate by helping to tell the success story of AfCFTA through the creation of multi-media content to enhance the impact of intra-African trade.
Turning to trading, Mene said trade under AfCFTA has been gathering momentum across the African continent as countries have started trading among themselves under the provisions of the free trade area.
“We have concluded the last two protocols, which are the protocols on women and youth in trade and the protocol on digital trade. Goods are flowing from country to country, and the last time I was in Algeria, they were importing milk from Uganda under AfCFTA provisions,” the secretary general added.
“AFRICA24 Group will invest in premium content to serve Africa’s development and amplify the positive effects of the AfCFTA on the continent’s economic growth and integration,” Constant Nemale, founder of the Africa24 Group, pledged.
Nemale added that the media group would train journalists across the continent on AfCFTA and establish a dedicated channel to promote trading activities on the continent to drive the integration agenda for a prosperous Africa in line with the African Union’s long-term development vision called Agenda 2063.
The AfCFTA initiative approved in Jnuary 2012, took effect in May 30, 2019 as one of the flagship projects of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 “the Africa we want.”
The continental free trade agreement aims to accelerate intra-African trade and make effective a common market for more than 1.5 billion people by eliminating all forms of barriers to trade and being a source of added value for the economy of the African continent.
Constant Nemale, founder of the Africa24 Group ( seated left) and AfCFTA Scretary General Wamkele Mene (seated right) signing teh agreement in Monday, 21st July 2024 at the Africa Trade House in Accra, Ghana.
AFRICA24 Group, launched in 2009, is the leading TV media group onthe African continent, and the leading medium for decision-makers and executives on the continent and around the world.
Publisher of 4 HD channels available 24 hours a day, AFRICA24 is the only pioneer and leader in news channels on Africa with AFRICA24 and AFRICA24 English, as well as the leading sports channel AFRICA24 Sport and the reference channel for the creative industries AFRICA24 Infinity.