The African Union, comprised of 55 Member States, has prioritized enhancing regional integration and development, and in 2016 decided to move towards a “borderless” Africa with seamless intracontinental migration.

Following the unveiling of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, in March 2018, Africa is about to become the world’s largest free trade area: 55 countries merging into a single market of 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion. In this edition, we examine the benefits and challenges of a free trade area for countries and individual traders.

On March 21, 2018, in Kigali, Rwanda, Africa took the giant step of creating a large and integrated market by establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)