AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA: Govt directs smooth entry

DAR ES SALAAM: MINISTER for Industry and Trade Dr Selemani Jafo has directed all relevant government agencies to facilitate citizens to tap into opportunities offered under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

According to the Minister, Tanzania has already penetrated 18 African countries under the AfCFTA framework.

“Let us be facilitators not frustrators” Dr Selemani Jafo said yesterday in Dar es Salam during the launch of the National Implementation Strategy of the AfCFTA.

The National Implementation Strategy serves as a blueprint to unlock Tanzania’s potential in the continental market of approximately 1.4 billion people, outlining key areas essential for successful trade.

Minister Jafo declared July 24 of every year as the country’s business clinic day, aimed at bringing together all government agencies, including the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), with representatives from the private sector to address persistent challenges in effectively accessing the AfCFTA.

“This is a government’s deliberate commitment to ensuring every business hurdle is resolved,” Dr Jafo said.

He said the central goal is to generate more foreign currencies for the country’s economic growth.

Dr Jafo said that by June 2025, Tanzania had already recorded impressive achievements under the AfCFTA, with 43 companies trading in 18 countries mainly in coffee and sisal products, including ropes.

As a result, he said the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) had issued a total of 392 certificates of origin to traders.

Dr Jafo reminded that the AfCFTA protocol was ratified in September 2021 in the National Assembly.

Today, Tanzania is among eight countries under the Guided Trade Initiative (GTI), a pilot programme which aims at facilitating trade in the continent through the AfCFTA.

Other countries are Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda and Tunisia. In that regard, Dr Jafo said the inaugurated Implementation Strategy acts as the tool for further penetration.

“It serves as the message that alerts that on what obstacles prevent us from fully exploitation of the Africa market and what to do to succeed,” he said.

The AfCFTA implementation strategy focuses on strengthening private sector competitiveness through soft-loan financing, upgrading production capacity to all citizens, heightening commercial service efficiency, women and youth inclusivity, enhancing e-commerce, harmonisation of trade legal framework and policies as well as trade expansion and consumers’ protection.

He said AfCFTA aligns with Tanzania’s broader agenda of industrialisation targeting in establishment of 9,045 industries to employ 6.5 million people, of which 1.04 million are direct jobs in the next six years.

Dr Jafo underlined the importance of cooperation between the private and the public sector in beating the agenda.

Earlier, United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Deputy Resident Representative Mr John Rutere said the launch signalled Tanzania clear commitment to advancing regional integration, leveraging trade as the driver of inclusivity and sustainable development.

“As the rest of the globe moves towards closer integration and strengthening their regional blocs and strengthen trade among themselves. It is prime time that Africa takes the initiative that we are seeing through this protocol to also strengthen trade among African countries,” Mr Rutere said.

Adding “it is the step forward for achieving Pan-Africanism.”

Historically, Mr Rutere noted that Africa intra-trade has been very low accounting less than 20 per cent of African exports. Looking forward, he pointed out Tanzania as a strategic player in the global south which has its presence in the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

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Meanwhile, Deputy Minister for Transport, Mr David Kihenzile said the transport sector acts the blood veins for operationalisation of the AfCFTA.

Govt directs smooth entry He said Tanzania has been undertaking major electric Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project stretching 2300 kilometres worth over 10 billion US dollars (about 26tri/-) to facilitate local and regional trade through the Dar es Salaam Port among others.