Mbeki, Ghana VP, Dangote Lead AfroChampions Agenda To Finance African Continental Free Trade Area

The AfroChampions Initiative, which is co-chaired by former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, and Aliko Dangote, the President and CEO of Dangote Group, on Tuesday announced it has formally launched a private sector investment framework to secure financing for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

This announcement was made following the occasion of a high-level meeting convened by the initiative in partnership with Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana, bringing together investors, financing institutions, as well as sovereign and private funds.

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The initiative´s main objective is to mobilize the private sector in Africa and beyond through a dedicated blended-finance vehicle to accelerate the continent’s economic integration by rapidly deploying infrastructure projects seen as critical to successfully delivering AfCFTA and making it a positive transformation for Africans.

Founded by the advisory and research firm Konfidants, which manages the secretariat jointly with strategic advocacy firm Impulse Africa, the AfroChampions Initiative is headquartered in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.

It works with regional and global partners and governments, with the support of other corporate and institutional partners, including ADS Group, the Djondo Fellowship, the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, and the Thabo Mbeki Foundation.

Considering that key enablers of the AfCFTA are the removal of non-tariff barriers, the deployment of transport and connectivity networks, access to cheap energy, and up-scaling African economies towards more value-added products, the framework defines a range of priority opportunities, as well as structuring projects to be financed, under certain conditions, by the fund set up for that purpose.

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The proposed framework is widely regarded as forward-looking and includes many proposals from the AfroChampions Boma on Infrastructure Financing and Delivery, which was organized last April in Nairobi with the African Union’s High Representative for Infrastructure, Raila Odinga.

The AfroChampions Initiative also provides for an annual benchmarking process to follow up on this program, as well as on national reforms transcribing the AfCFTA to improve the cross-border business readiness of African states.

“With the AfroChampions Initiative, we have found partners committed to our vision of a prosperous and integrated Africa and working to implement practical solutions. The AfCFTA Private Sector Investment and Financing framework is a very thorough approach, monitoring the AfCFTA agreement’s legal implementation, defining certification criteria qualifying projects eligible for funding, mobilizing the private sector in Africa, and a process to coordinate with the public authorities ” said Albert Muchanga, African Union’s commissioner for trade and industry.

Muchanga further added that “the African Union Summit in Niamey gave us a great opportunity to raise awareness among heads of state and we hope to be able to move quickly on this ambitious roadmap.”

“To address reluctance and concerns about the AfCFTA, we must demonstrate that it is a major and tangible opportunity for all stakeholders, whether states or companies regardless of size, civil society or individual citizens of the African continent. And this AfCFTA private sector investment and financing framework is the best tool for realising that goal,” said Ali Mufuruki, vice-president of the AfroChampions Club for the East African Region.

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According to him, “we need to work better together across borders and focus on high-impact regional or pan-African projects – because they are the most likely to attract the volume of funds that we need. This is our main challenge today”.

During the Accra session of the AfroChampions Initiative, participants defined a detailed roadmap for the financing of AfCFTA, including various targeted milestones over the next 18 months.

Among the key dates are the 4th quarter of 2019 for the presentation of the dedicated fund during the next AfroChampions Boma, and early 2020 for presentation of the first benchmark and follow-up report on AfCFTA implementation, which will also coincide with the organization of an exhibition on ‘Made in Africa’.
The AfroChampions Initiative is a public-private partnership designed to galvanize African resources and institutions to drive further Africa’s economic integration. As a consequence, the Initiative supports the emergence and success of African corporate champions, which have a critical role in integrating African markets and accelerating the transformation of the continent.

It has defined 4 pillars of activity, all aimed at supporting Africa’s economic integration, with the objective to have a tangible and positive impact.

The four pillars include capacity building for the next generation of African executives, policy-shaping for a successful implementation of AfCFTA through a sensitization campaign designed to educate African entrepreneurs of all sizes about the opportunities resulting from the African single market.

The other two pillars are based on creating a powerful group of AfroChampions companies able to speak with one voice and identify common areas of interest, within the AfroChampions Club; as well as facilitating investments into strategic African projects.

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