Secretary General of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat in Accra, Mr Wamkele Mene has announced that his outfit is arranging a total of $23 billion to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and young, budding entrepreneurs.
Mr Mene was addressing both Ghanaian and Kenyan businesses at the instance of the visit to Ghana by President William Ruto.
SMEs are a critical part of economies across the world and for Africa there is no exception.
The 1.4billion people market in Africa offers huge potential for businesses, especially in the SME sector to leverage, grow and contribute to the much talked about intra-Africa trade.
“some of the concrete steps we have taken include signing a $6billion M.O.U with Equity Bank, we have also signed an MOU with United Bank for Africa where they committed to disburse $7billion to small medium enterprises, particularly small medium enterprises that are led by young people; it has been reported to us at the Secretariat that already some $150million under this fund has been disbursed,” Mr Mene disclosed.
He revealed further that “ the Secretariat had mobilised an AfCFTA adjustment fund of over $1billion that had been made available by Afreximbank however we will mobilise up to $10billion to ensure that in the implementation of the AfCFTA , SMEs, young people are at the centre of benefits.”
Mr Mene emphasised that AfCFTA was poised to become a globally competitive single market.
“For a continent of 1.4billion people, with a combined GDP projected by the year 2050 to be close to $16.2 trillion , we are well poised to be a single market that is globally competitive, that has advanced industrial development capabilities and that has food security to feed herself by eliminating barriers to trade intra-Africa and basic agricultural products,” Mr Mene stated.
