Ahead of the 2025 Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development, a Committee of Experts has gathered at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa for a three-day meeting. The session, running from March 12 to March 14, aims to assess Africa’s economic and social development while evaluating progress toward regional integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Themed “Advancing the Implementation of the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area: Proposing Transformative Strategic Actions,” this year’s conference seeks to address critical challenges and opportunities in realizing the AfCFTA’s potential.
Opening the expert segment, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Finance, Semereta Sewasew, emphasized that the AfCFTA is more than a legal framework—it is a transformative initiative aimed at fostering industrialization, job creation, and poverty alleviation. “The AfCFTA underscores the urgency of unlocking Africa’s economic potential through enhanced intra-African trade,” she said.
Minister Sewasew highlighted Ethiopia’s commitment to regional integration through investments in infrastructure projects like the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway and energy resources such as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. However, she acknowledged significant hurdles to AfCFTA implementation, including infrastructure gaps, financing constraints, and varying capacities among member states. She urged delegates to propose actionable recommendations to ensure tangible progress for women, youth, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which form the backbone of Africa’s economy.
Antonio Pedro, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), underscored the AfCFTA’s role as both a development blueprint and a political platform for asserting Africa’s collective interests globally. He called for reducing Africa’s dependency on imports by leveraging local production capabilities for key commodities such as fertilizers and refined petroleum.
Pedro noted that intra-African trade remains low, accounting for only 14.4% of total trade on the continent. He projected that reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers under the AfCFTA could increase intra-African trade by 45% by 2045. However, he stressed that achieving this goal requires significant investments in infrastructure—estimated at $411 billion for transport systems like railways, vessels, and trucks.
The outgoing Chair of the Conference of Ministers from Zimbabwe highlighted ECA’s achievements over the past year in supporting member states with macroeconomic stability, development planning, and industrialization. However, he emphasized the need for a fair global financial system to support Africa’s transformation through the AfCFTA.
Participants also discussed systemic challenges such as limited infrastructure funding and non-tariff barriers that hinder cross-border trade. Despite these obstacles, there was optimism about the AfCFTA’s potential to create jobs, boost income levels by $450 billion by 2035, and lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty.
The preparatory meeting sets the stage for next week’s ministerial segment on March 17-18, where African finance ministers will deliberate on recommendations from the experts’ session. As one of Africa’s premier forums for policy dialogue on economic development, this conference underscores the importance of collective action in advancing regional integration and sustainable growth.
By addressing challenges head-on and implementing transformative strategies, African nations have an opportunity to harness the full potential of the AfCFTA—a game-changing initiative poised to reshape the continent’s economic future.
