rvp20182:
We have to start somewhere.Ecowas,COMESA,EAC,SADC and others are already working and so no reason why it can't work.Nigeria just need to ratify it like a giant it claims to be.

why should africa not start by harmonizing those blocs before talking about free trade that I don't see happening in d next 10years?

Having a single currency will do, do u expect us to convert our monies to dollar before we can trade among ourselves?

If it's all for argument sake, u can continue to delude urselves about acfta. So many accords has been signed in africa, less than 50% came to fruition.

rvp20182:
Kenya already does 48% of it's trade within Africa.Other countries need to do that.

what 48% of trade does kenya does within africa, u prevaricator?

more...

more

theenchanter:
i still don't understand d frenzy behind this afcta n I bet most of us here still don't know every little details about it.

Afcta in my view won't work (I'm not a naysayer ). There are many things that must be in place before it would work, it's not just about signing it, we can't hope to operate like Europe within a short period of time when we're actually not europe.

For acfta to to work, we need integrated rail line across d continent for easy movement of goods and services, do we have that?

For acfta to work, we need to have a single currency in d continent for trade to be easily implemented, do we have that?

What about "yamoussokro accord" for open skies that we badly need in d continent, an accord that has been existing for close to 30years, it'll make goods n services to be easily transported a cross d continent via air, have we implemented it?

They list goes on n on.... if the basics are not in place, how do we trade goods n services?

You are very right. 100% correct!

The idea of free trade area in Africa have been hatched in a hasty,selfish ambitions. Many things are needed to be implemented before we even consider a free trade area.

Africa has few things to trade among ourselves. Most of African nations are producing raw materials except for one nation which is south Africa.That's the only nation which have a reasonable amount of industries.

And most of those south African industrial products are too expensive for most of African population,that's the reason most Africans goes to stock in China than buying a similar product which is produced in south Africa

Africa's free trade area should have at least started in regional levels like ECOWAS or SADC or EAC.But most of this regions struggle to implement the zero tarrifs among themselves. Kenya and TZ has a trade war.The reason? Very similar to what Africa's free trade area will face...

Most African nations are importing most of products from cheap producers of China and Brazil.E.g. sugar. They then repackage it locally.That is what causes problems in east Africa.Tanzania's wheat
flour was banned in Kenya for a reason that some of it was imported from Brazil! Tanzania banned some Kenya's pharmaceutical products which was said to be imported and repackaged in Kenya.Tanzania also banned confectionary stuffs by saying the sugar used in production was imported! That was the beginning of a long trade war.

Even south Africa,which is the most industrialized African nation is also importing stuffs and repackage!

I wonder what will africans trade among themselves. What products do countries like Chad has,what does Niger have? Somalia?CAR? Djibouti?Mauritania? Mali? Burkina Faso? Liberia? Gambia etc.What do they manufacture?

What I see is few nations will benefit by repackaging the cheap produce from Brazil,China and India.

The solution?
Build the capacity in Africa.Have a superb monitoring,and supervision of Africa's manufacturing. Remove those real obstacles like electricity. Go build that Inga dam in Congo which is capable of producing enough cheap power for the whole of africa.

Kazikazi:
You are very right. 100% correct!

The idea of free trade area in Africa have been hatched in a hasty,selfish ambitions. Many things are needed to be implemented before we even consider a free trade area.

Africa has few things to trade among ourselves. Most of African nations are producing raw materials except for one nation which is south Africa.That's the only nation which have a reasonable amount of industries.

And most of those south African industrial products are too expensive for most of African population,that's the reason most Africans goes to stock in China than buying a similar product which is produced in south Africa

Africa's free trade area should have at least started in regional levels like ECOWAS or SADC or EAC.But most of this regions struggle to implement the zero tarrifs among themselves. Kenya and TZ has a trade war.The reason? Very similar to what Africa's free trade area will face...

Most African nations are importing most of products from cheap producers of China and Brazil.E.g. sugar. They then repackage it locally.That is what causes problems in east Africa.Tanzania's wheat
flower was banned in Kenya for a reason that some of it was imported from Brazil! Tanzania banned some Kenya's pharmaceutical products which was said to be imported and repackaged in Kenya.Tanzania also banned confectionary stuffs by saying the sugar used in production was imported! That was the beginning of a long trade war.

Even south Africa,which is the most industrialized African nation is also importing stuffs and repackage!

I wonder what will africans trade among themselves. What products do countries like Chad has,what does Niger have? Somalia?CAR? Djibouti?Mauritania? Mali? Burkina Faso? Liberia? Gambia etc.What do they manufacture?

What I see is few nations will benefit by repackaging the cheap produce from Brazil,China and India.

The solution?
Build the capacity in Africa.Have a superb monitoring,and supervision of Africa's manufacturing. Remove those real obstacles like electricity. Go build that Inga dam in Congo which is capable of producing enough cheap power for the whole of africa.

finally found someone with sound logical reasoning, let them continue to deceive themselves, it'll make them sleep better.

Have a beer.

theenchanter:
why should africa not start by harmonizing those blocs before talking about free trade that I don't see happening in d next 10years?

Having a single currency will do, do u expect us to convert our monies to dollar before we can trade among ourselves?

If it's all for argument sake, u can continue to delude urselves about acfta. So many accords has been signed in africa, less than 50% came to fruition.what 48% of trade does kenya does within africa, u prevaricator?

Single currency is not as important as Africa countries importing and exporting from within Africa.Last I checked Kenya was the leading star there..importing and exporting nearly half it's trade from Africa.Our biggest trade partners are Uganda, Tanzania (jealousy killing them),likes of South Africa,Rwanda,South Sudan,DRC Congo and then Egypt & Sudan.We simply need removal of all trade barriers..both traffic and non traffic..and free flow of labour.That can easily be done and definitely 17 Africa countries are committed to it..just 5 more to go.

Kazikazi:
You are very right. 100% correct!

The idea of free trade area in Africa have been hatched in a hasty,selfish ambitions. Many things are needed to be implemented before we even consider a free trade area.

Africa has few things to trade among ourselves. Most of African nations are producing raw materials except for one nation which is south Africa.That's the only nation which have a reasonable amount of industries.

And most of those south African industrial products are too expensive for most of African population,that's the reason most Africans goes to stock in China than buying a similar product which is produced in south Africa

Africa's free trade area should have at least started in regional levels like ECOWAS or SADC or EAC.But most of this regions struggle to implement the zero tarrifs among themselves. Kenya and TZ has a trade war.The reason? Very similar to what Africa's free trade area will face...

Most African nations are importing most of products from cheap producers of China and Brazil.E.g. sugar. They then repackage it locally.That is what causes problems in east Africa.Tanzania's wheat
flour was banned in Kenya for a reason that some of it was imported from Brazil! Tanzania banned some Kenya's pharmaceutical products which was said to be imported and repackaged in Kenya.Tanzania also banned confectionary stuffs by saying the sugar used in production was imported! That was the beginning of a long trade war.

Even south Africa,which is the most industrialized African nation is also importing stuffs and repackage!

I wonder what will africans trade among themselves. What products do countries like Chad has,what does Niger have? Somalia?CAR? Djibouti?Mauritania? Mali? Burkina Faso? Liberia? Gambia etc.What do they manufacture?

What I see is few nations will benefit by repackaging the cheap produce from Brazil,China and India.

The solution?
Build the capacity in Africa.Have a superb monitoring,and supervision of Africa's manufacturing. Remove those real obstacles like electricity. Go build that Inga dam in Congo which is capable of producing enough cheap power for the whole of africa.

Nonsense.The % of local content can be agreed upon after verification.Each country can ask to inspect factories abd if there is goodwill like in kenya and uganda..such isues .There is huge scope that intra Africa trade can fill.Kenya is an example doing nearly half it's trade within Africa.Imagine if other countries tried as much.The same with tourism.Look at Rwanda...when it allowed free trade and travel for all Africa..it's trade and tourism jumped by nearly 40%.

rvp20182:
Single currency is not as important as Africa countries importing and exporting from within Africa.Last I checked Kenya was the leading star there..importing and exporting nearly half it's trade from Africa.Our biggest trade partners are Uganda, Tanzania (jealousy killing them),likes of South Africa,Rwanda,South Sudan,DRC Congo and then Egypt & Sudan.We simply need removal of all trade barriers..both traffic and non traffic..and free flow of labour.That can easily be done and definitely 17 Africa countries are committed to it..just 5 more to go.

You have to start from somewhere you know
A journey starts with one step
But some African countries are not cooperating

rvp20182:
Nonsense.The % of local content can be agreed upon after verification.There is huge scope that intra Africa trade can fill.Kenya is an example doing nearly half it's trade within Africa.Imagine if other countries tried as much.The same with tourism.Look at Rwanda...when it allowed free trade and travel for all Africa..it's trade and tourism jumped by nearly 40%.

Jealous stupidity( Tanzania ) trade protectionism is what is killing intra African trade
African countries will rather trade with Asian countries but not other African countries

But Kenya doesn't care we just bought half of Tanzania's cashew nuts

A single currency in Africa? I don't see that happening!

theenchanter:
why should africa not start by harmonizing those blocs before talking about free trade that I don't see happening in d next 10years?

Having a single currency will do, do u expect us to convert our monies to dollar before we can trade among ourselves?

If it's all for argument sake, u can continue to delude urselves about acfta. So many accords has been signed in africa, less than 50% came to fruition.what 48% of trade does kenya does within africa, u prevaricator?

Those that didn't sign are the usual - the bottom feeders - the retrogressive nations. Thankful out of 52 Africa countries...you can pick the bottom 20 and forget about them. The target is to get 22 countries. I think we will get to 32 and make this operational. Close home - Kenya need to start looking towards Ethiopia - esp for cereals - we really don't need to farm maize, beans and sugar-cane - if Ethiopia can do that - and we can convert our decreasing arable land into high value crops.

tylann:

You have to start from somewhere you know
A journey starts with one step
But some African countries are not cooperating

Uganda inspected and later allowed our confectioneries products to pass without duty,but Tanzania is the one playing hardball!

rvp20182:
Nonsense.The % of local content can be agreed upon after verification.Each country can ask to inspect factories abd if there is goodwill like in kenya and uganda..such isues .There is huge scope that intra Africa trade can fill.Kenya is an example doing nearly half it's trade within Africa.Imagine if other countries tried as much.The same with tourism.Look at Rwanda...when it allowed free trade and travel for all Africa..it's trade and tourism jumped by nearly 40%.

It indeed a combination of jealousy and stupidity that has seen them yearly attempt to stiffle trade - except when nobody wants to buy their maize, beans and cashew nuts - and they have to rush to Kenya.

tylann:

Jealous stupidity( Tanzania ) trade protectionism is what is killing intra African trade
African countries will rather trade with Asian countries but not other African countries
But Kenya doesn't care we just bought half of Tanzania's cashew nuts

rvp20182:
Single currency is not as important as Africa countries importing and exporting from within Africa.Last I checked Kenya was the leading star there..importing and exporting nearly half it's trade from Africa.Our biggest trade partners are Uganda, Tanzania (jealousy killing them),likes of South Africa,Rwanda,South Sudan,DRC Congo and then Egypt & Sudan.

Let's assume u deal with coffee n u want to enter d nigerian market, a 50kg bag of it cost 24,000ksh ($240) in kenya, 28,850naira ($80) in nigeria. How do u hope to sell to nigeria in dollar($) without incurring debt, despite spending huge amount of money on transport?

If I'm a yam dealer in 9ja n I wanna enter d kenyan market, 30 big tubers of yam costs 13000naira($36) in nigeria, i dont know d price in kenya but I know it'll cost like 3 or 4 times that amount, if I enter kenyan market, will I not destabilize kenyan indigenous yam marketers cos kenyan will obviously buy mine cos its cheaper.

Ur response.

Jonraid:
A single currency in Africa? I don't see that happening!

they're deliberating over it.

There will be institutions to make sure trade works and is fair for everyone. That would include some forms of courts to deal with contracts, insurances and etc. Ultimately every country would be allowed to do joint verification if they think some was re-packagign and re-badging Chinese goods - and gaining duty free access.

Ultimately NO SERIOUS MANUFACTURING will happen if a manufacturer is targeting a small country. But if a manufacturer knew he could manufacture his stuff in Nairobi - and sell to 50 countries in Africa - they will come.

Smaller countries will benefit the most - because they really don't have good enough market for local production - but with free trade - a big chinese manufacturer can set up a factory in Kigali and sell it to DRC Congo duty free.

Jonraid:
Uganda inspected and later allowed our confectioneries products to pass without duty,but Tanzania is the one playing hardball!

vaxx:
wait do you have a diarrhoea of the mouth or constipation of the brain?This stupid to say, You are comparing a whole city that has the pressence of Atlantic ocean passing thru it less natural to that rocky town of abuja, you are a comparing a city that can boost of unmatched botanical garden, natural park , and a lot of scenic environment to abuja. i think it is better to let someone think you are an Idiot than to open your mouth and prove it


[ are you an illiterate or something? Accra has a whole lot of international expatriate living in it than Abuja. An averaged american or british will prefer the remote part of ghana to any city in Nigeria. not just because of peaceful atmosphere, but simply because they can enjoy basic amenities like electricity, water supply, and unreliable internet supply





I think You are more stupid than i thought. Lome in togo has lots of international headquater than abuja, ""headquater of ecowas and that make it the capital of west africa"" Are you daft or something? it is a rotation and it can be taken to even cotonou per memeber agreement. Abuja was not choosing because it is the right location, Abuja was chosen because it has more member seat due to population.


This is where your stupidity is getting interesting, Accra has Three public university and about 20 to 30 private university college ,four fledged private university and three international university ( uk, usa and Germany).





This is where i said you lots needs education. go Google what tourism is all about and then come here to tell me if is anything related to what you put up here.




b Your illiteracy shouild be subjected to immediate emergency. lagos itself takes about 60 to 70 percent of the entire Nigeria economy, it is expected. in Ghana, commerce and industry is spread around and not centre on a single location.

Insulting me doesn't make you right... Now go get a life

rvp20182:
Nonsense.The % of local content can be agreed upon after verification.Each country can ask to inspect factories abd if there is goodwill like in kenya and uganda..such isues .There is huge scope that intra Africa trade can fill.Kenya is an example doing nearly half it's trade within Africa.Imagine if other countries tried as much.The same with tourism.Look at Rwanda...when it allowed free trade and travel for all Africa..it's trade and tourism jumped by nearly 40%.

The hard truth is you lack products.Imported stuffs which are rebranded made in Kenya won't accepted in Tz.You started by blocking our wheat flour and gas products! We retaliated. Let the trade war continue

rvp2018:
There will be institutions to make sure trade works and is fair for everyone. That would include some forms of courts to deal with contracts, insurances and etc. Ultimately every country would be allowed to do joint verification if they think some was re-packagign and re-badging Chinese goods - and gaining duty free access.

Ultimately NO SERIOUS MANUFACTURING will happen if a manufacturer is targeting a small country. But if a manufacturer knew he could manufacture his stuff in Nairobi - and sell to 50 countries in Africa - they will come.

Smaller countries will benefit the most - because they really don't have good enough market for local production - but with free trade - a big chinese manufacturer can set up a factory in Kigali and sell it to DRC Congo duty free.

So why can't we have those courts and institutions in place before we start a free trade zone? We didn't resolve regional issues like a trade war btn TZ and kenya,how can we jump the gun to higher levels?

rvp2018:
It indeed a combination of jealousy and stupidity that has seen them yearly attempt to stiffle trade - except when nobody wants to buy their maize, beans and cashew nuts - and they have to rush to Kenya.

Of course is Kenya , Kenya is one of the largest investors in tz
We buy a lot of they agricultural products

tylann:

Jealous stupidity( Tanzania ) trade protectionism is what is killing intra African trade
African countries will rather trade with Asian countries but not other African countries

But Kenya doesn't care we just bought half of Tanzania's cashew nuts

Kenya is a small boy to us.We have a free trade zone with SADC. We sell a lot to south Africa.south Africa does the same.Why should we fear a small boy( Kenya)? Our manufacturing growth is among the fastest growing in Africa!

The institutions are part of the trade deal. They will mature with real life challenges. All of these will go hand in hand. Obviously no amount of assurance of fair play can assuage your envy of kenya progress and development.

Anyway the idea for Intra-Africa trade is to remove the middle man - who are developed countries of Europe, Asia and American - who buy African products, do a little processing and then sell it back to us.

Kazikazi:
So why can't we have those courts and institutions in place before we start a free trade zone? We didn't resolve regional issues like a trade war btn TZ and me,how can we jump the gun to higher levels?

To @vaxx and @just30... ur banks can't cope in d nigerian banking sphere, even foreign banks find it difficult to cope with d competition.

Keystone bank (most innovative bank in africa 2018) is not even among d top banks in nigeria, just introduced cheque deposit through app, even without Internet.

Does/can any Ghanaian bank offer that?

https://leadership.ng/2019/02/04/keystone-bank-deploys-cheque-deposit-in-mobile-app/amp/

Some countries will be bought and that initiative won't happen.Also,we have economies in this continent which are struggling,we must first make sure that everyone is solid enough before we roll out a common currency.We can draw lessons from how the Greek crisis has been giving the Euro a hard time!

theenchanter:
they're deliberating over it.

Check.

Jonraid:
Some countries will be bought and that initiative won't happen.Also,we have economies in this continent which are struggling,we must first make sure that everyone is solid enough before we roll out a common currency.We can draw lessons from how the Greek crisis has been giving the Euro a hard time!

alright.

tylann:


Of course is Kenya , Kenya is one of the largest investors in tz
We buy a lot of they agricultural products

Stop your stupidity.You have many smaller projects in Tz,but you aren't the real investor in Tz.Canada which is not consider big investor in Tz,have invested about 4 billion dollars in Gold mining! Are you that close? China too,south Africa,UK, all they are in mining.Unless you enter a big boys club of mining we won't take you serious.A supermarket like uchumi isn't a real investment,they even failed to pay rent in Dar and Kilimanjaro

What are your trade volumes with SADC? Probably it's just a mere pocket change.Don't go on gloating about SADC ffs!

Kazikazi:
Kenya is a small boy to us.We have a free trade zone with SADC. We sell a lot to south Africa.south Africa does the same.Why should we fear a small boy( Kenya)? Our manufacturing growth is among the fastest growing in Africa!

moree

The last statement reminds me of how the Asians invested much in Africa's apparel sector just to gain the US market duty free through the AGOA!

rvp2018:
There will be institutions to make sure trade works and is fair for everyone. That would include some forms of courts to deal with contracts, insurances and etc. Ultimately every country would be allowed to do joint verification if they think some was re-packagign and re-badging Chinese goods - and gaining duty free access.

Ultimately NO SERIOUS MANUFACTURING will happen if a manufacturer is targeting a small country. But if a manufacturer knew he could manufacture his stuff in Nairobi - and sell to 50 countries in Africa - they will come.

Smaller countries will benefit the most - because they really don't have good enough market for local production - but with free trade - a big chinese manufacturer can set up a factory in Kigali and sell it to DRC Congo duty free.

..