NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 28 – Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) Board Vice Chairperson Mary-Ann Musangi has called for greater involvement of Africa’s private sector in implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), saying businesses must be at the centre of efforts to transform the agreement into a functioning continental market.

📻 Breaking It Down

Speaking at the Unstoppable Africa 2026 forum in New York, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, Mary-Ann said Africa had moved beyond negotiating the framework and should now focus on making AfCFTA deliver tangible economic benefits to businesses and citizens.

Her remarks came during a session themed “Tools and Architects: Putting Africa’s Private Sector in the AfCFTA Driver’s Seat.”

The central question, she argued, is no longer whether Africa has established a continental free trade framework, but whether that framework can enable African businesses to produce, invest, trade, scale and compete across borders.

📌 What You Need to Know

AfCFTA is the culmination of a decades-long African ambition for economic integration, dating back to the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

The agreement seeks to create a single market for goods and services, deepen economic integration, promote industrialisation and enable African economies to make better use of their resources and markets.

Mary-Ann noted that the institutional architecture is now substantially in place, shifting the priority from negotiations to implementation.

The success of AfCFTA, she maintained, should therefore be measured by what happens in the real economy rather than by the number of protocols signed, meetings held or institutions established.

Africa also has a long history of cross-border commerce. From trans-Saharan trade to the Indian Ocean trading networks, African communities and economies have exchanged goods across considerable distances for centuries.

What has changed is the fragmentation of the continent’s economic space, with different regulatory systems, standards, currencies and infrastructure creating barriers to the movement of goods and services.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya