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African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretary General HE Wamkele Mene said 36 out of 55 African countries are ready for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He said the 36 countries have deposited their instruments of ratification to adhere to the sets of trade laws agreed to by the AfCFTA.
HE Wamkele Mene assured that the AfCFTA secretariat will go beyond rhetoric and policies to launch an action plan.
He added that the new plan will see the partner structure of AU and ECA to launch an industrial development forum so that the investment community, business community and policy makers can develop an industrial action plan. for Africa for the next 15 to 20 years.
Speaking via Zoom from Addis Ababa at the Ghana Petroleum Conference 2021 virtual edition on Wednesday, HE Wamkele Mene said the petroleum industry can be developed with the right policies to guide investments.
Regarding the downstream oil sector, he indicated the need to build a robust oil industry for the continent to develop.
He said adding value to crude oil is the way forward for the continent to become a net exporter of refined petroleum products.
Moving forward as a new Africa, the Secretary General of the AfCFTA said that the goals for which all African countries have come together are achievable if the continent’s oil industry is placed at the center.
“Without the petroleum industry, without added value in the petroleum industry, with the development of the upgrading capacity in Africa, the trade that we seek to stimulate in Africa will not be reached at the same level as we would,” he added. declared HE Wamkele Mene. speaking on the theme “Positioning Africa’s Oil Downstream for AfCFTA”.
He stressed that the oil industry is absolutely an integral part of the industrialization of Africa. “We should strive to be more of We should strive to ensure that we rely less on exporting crude oil to other countries to refine our products for us and resell them to us,” added HE Wamkele Mene.
He believes that once this is done, it will dismantle the colonial economic model that sees the continent exporting crude oil every year and instead rely more on our own refining capacity to help grow and transform the world. ‘Africa.
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