Maximizing the benefits of the AfCFTA for young people

 Published at The Futures Report AfCFTA Secretariat

What AfCFTA holds for African youth

Demographically, Africa is the youngest continent in the world. However, despite making up this significant percentage, youth participation is limited in the decision-making in the socio- economic arenas, especially cross-border trade and governance matters. Young people are central to the achievement of the African Union Agenda 2063 and are major stakeholders of the cardinal framework in the domestication and stepping down process.

Young people in Africa are adversely impacted by high levels of unemployment, low quality jobs, and major obstacles to participation in cross-border trade. Young entrepreneurs face a wide set of bottlenecks that hinder their willingness to engage in and benefit from international trade, such as steep taxes while trading across borders. Another major challenge faced by young entrepreneurs in Africa is financing; for instance, securing loans from banks and access to equities is particularly difficult for them.

Although the entry into force of the AfCFTA is a significant accomplishment, it must be followed up with practices to ensure that African businesses, citizens, young people and women truly benefit from it. The AfCFTA must be supported by appropriate national policies and programmes that allow youth to have access to the regional supply chains, trade opportunities in the public and private sectors. All of these will encourage them to play a pivotal role in the AfCFTA process.

In the implementation phase of the AfCFTA, youth must be taken into consideration, and have key opportunities to meet the growing requirements of industrialization and cross-border commerce. This requires comprehensive dialogue at both the national and regional level in order to highlight their role in continental integration towards building an inclusive implementation process, as well as to explore the real challenges faced by young entrepreneurs.

During the commemoration of Africa Integration Day on 8 July 2020, we organized with the African Union Department of Trade and Industry, a virtual Intergenerational Dialogue (IGD) under the theme, “The role of young people in accelerating Africa’s integration through the AfCFTA”. More than 600 youth participated, curious to find out about the AfCFTA and understand its current and potential benefits, and also contribute to the debate. The following recommendations were put forward by youth during the conversations.

Access to digital technology

Although it is agreed that digital transformation is an innovative force, it also a privilege in Africa; 70 percent of Africa’s population is offline, and the high cost of Internet data bundles and the digital divide remain a major challenge. People who are not connected can be invisible and miss out on the opportunities of the digital revolution and the power of information. Therefore, urgent action and political will are needed for investment in digital infrastructure. Young people should not be just consumers of content and digital products but should also be creators. In addition, there is a need to ensure that digital services reach those vulnerable groups who are left behind due to lower costs for data and access.

Since digital trade is largely inevitable, we need to be ready for this change. The question remains, ‘How exactly can it be handled so as to achieve development in Africa that empowers the most vulnerable, and with youth at the centre, rather than being limited to transactions’. Digital trade should not be an avenue for big companies to exploit our markets, making billions with little commitments or contribution to qualitative development, making youth more online consumers than digital traders. And in this inequality, young women will suffer the most because they are underrepresented in the tech industry such as information technology, sciences and engineering. Rather, it should be a space where young Africans are benefiting from as much as they are contributing to its growth.

Access to finance

A large number of small business owners are young people. This indicates the importance of giving them access to funding resources to help them grow and also to give them guidance in business planning. Not all young entrepreneurs are able to benefit from this. Providing them with financial support at lower interest rates would improve the capacity for these businesses owners to increase their trade activities. There is a need for more financial support and business development assistance for young entrepreneurs in growing their business and maintaining stability on the macro and micro level as well as a reduction in trade tariffs to promote productivity and enhance the growth of African companies.

Access to education and training

Although education alone is not enough, it remains a core component of influencing young people’s livelihoods. Strengthening public education will provide youth with applicable learning opportunities that they need not only to be employable in today's changing world and will also generate jobs for the future.

The technological advancements that propel e-commerce and the growth of the digital economy also require skills and expertise that can only be provided by accelerated educational programmes, training and support.

Conclusion

In sum, it is essential that youth be provided with opportunities to participate in trade policymaking in order to highlight and propose recommendations on and best solutions for eliminating barriers they face in integrating their businesses into regional and global value chains.

The sustainability of the AfCFTA greatly depends on the capacity of African governments to harness the potential of their young population by guaranteeing that they are provided with the economic opportunities they deserve. Governments must protect youth’s intellectual property rights, ensuring that they benefit from their own innovations and ideas. The AfCFTA agenda will be expanded to allow professional and educational mobility and to improve the skills of Africa's youth workers. 

Although the impact of COVID-19 is dominating the attention of decision makers, regional integration remains essential for Africa. This is an opportune time for policymakers to not only listen to young people as beneficiaries of AfCFTA, but also to realize and implement structures for quality youth engagement and intergenerational co-leadership as a way to share responsibility in delivering on the Africa that we want.

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References

African Development Bank (2016). African Development Report 2015 - Chapter 5: Africa’s youth in the labour market. Available at www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/ Documents/Publications/ADR15_chapter_5.pdf

Global Africa Business Club (2020). The importance of Youth participation in trade and governance matters, September 2020. Available at www. globalafricabusinessclub.com/featured-article/ the-importance-of-youth-participation-in-trade-and- governance-matters

Internet World Stats. Usage and Population statistics (n.d.) The Digital Divide, ICT, and Broadband Internet: ICT - Information Communications Technologies, Internet World Status Usage and Population Status. Available at www. internetworldstats.com/links10.htm

World Bank (2016). Digital Dividends Overview, World Development Report 2016. Available at http://documents1. worldbank.org/curated/en/961621467994698644/ pdf/102724-WDR-WDR2016Overview-ENGLISH- WebResBox-394840B-OUO-9.pdf