African Continental Free Trade Area and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa proposes single African currency

African Continental Free Trade Area and South African President Ramaphosa proposes a single African currency

African News Agency

KIGALI – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday strongly punted the idea of creating a single homogeneous currency for African countries in a bid to attract infrastructure investment and enable ease of intra-African trade.

Speaking as a panelist on financing intra-Africa trade at the African Continental Free Trade Area business forum in Kigali, Rwanda, Ramaphosa said that it was time that Africa stops relying on foreign currency for its development and trade, adding that this was born of colonial mentality.

“These are the reasons we need partners who must work with us and assist us ensure we de-risk projects in order to attract finance for infrastructure projects. I am particularly interested in the notion of us having a tradeable currency that allows us to trade effectively across territorial borders,” Ramaphosa said.

“We must rid ourselves of this colonial mentality that demands we rely on other people’s currency. Perhaps the day, the hour and the moment could have arrived for us to create a single African currency. Our focus should not be on our individual countries but the continent as a whole to unlock great opportunities and capabilities.”

At least 53 African Heads of States have gathered in Kigali for the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the AU to consider the legal instruments of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) and also launch the agreement officially to establish the treaty.

AfCTA is aimed at deepening African economic integration, promoting agricultural development, food security, industrialisation and structural economic transformation through single-air continental transport market with free movement of persons, capital, goods and services.
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Video: African leaders call for single currency

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List of African Countries that signed the Establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at the 10th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly on the Launch of AfCFTA
Kigali, Rwanda, 21 March 2018: Close to Fifty (50) African Union Member States have signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Kigali Declaration and the Free Movement Protocol by order of interest, during the official opening ceremony of the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government held on 21 March 2018, in Kigali, Republic of Rwanda. A majority of the African countries signed all the three legal instruments while some signed two and the others signed one of the three instruments. Very few countries are yet to sign the AfCFTA Agreement.


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Video: African Continental Free Trade Area Business Forum | Kigali, 20 March 2018

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Video: Why Nigeria Backed Down From Signing Pan African Continental Free Trade Area

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Origin timeline of the single African currency process
The United States of Africa -The African Union
https://dilemma-x.net/2013/02/10/black-history-month-the-united-states-of-africa-the-diasporas-remittances-in-2012/