Annual Meetings of African Development Bank Group

These projects include the African Commodities Strategy, the Free Movement of People, the Continental Free Trade Area, and the Single African Air Transport Market.

Africa has gained momentum over the past decade on improving major macroeconomic indicators. Nevertheless, Africa faces constraints that must be addressed together with our partners, including production capacity, infrastructure, trade information, access to finance, and trade facilitation. 2 9.

The African Union’s Agenda 2063 indicates key flagship projects that we believe will accelerate transformational change on the continent. These projects include the African Commodities Strategy, the Free Movement of People, the Continental Free Trade Area, and the Single African Air Transport Market.

The last three, were finalized this year, and the implementation is already underway. The African Continental Free Trade Area, adopted by 44 African Union Member States (which means 80 percent of the AU membership) in Kigali in March, is perhaps the most consequential. For the first time, Africa will constitute a single market for goods and services which will also pave way for free movement of people and investments.

The ratification process for the Continental Free Trade Area is underway. The African Continental Free Trade Area will create a wider market of more than 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of USD 2.19 trillion. This will attract more productive investments and development of regional value chains.

The African Union has also agreed to adopt a common-format African passport, and to progressively eliminate barriers to the free movement of Africans within our continent.

Since 2014, Rwanda has offered visa-on-arrival to all African citizens, and the results in terms of travel and tourism have been very positive. At the beginning of this year, Rwanda extended visa-on-arrival to citizens of any country in the world.

The Single African Air Transport Market was launched in January this year. This will make transport of people and goods across the continent, cheaper and faster.