The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Sunday, May 15, launched the first-ever comprehensive tool that measures how easy, or hard, it is to do business between African countries.
The AfCFTA Country Business Index (ACBI) has three key objectives including assessing the perceived impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area on the private sector's ability to trade and invest across African borders once the Area is operational.
The idea that started in 2018 focuses explicitly on the constraints and challenges faced by private businesses, said Stephen Karingi, Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division of UNECA.
Its launch was done in a side event during the 54th session of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of Ministers in Dakar, Senegal.
"It will be used to identify key challenges that the private sector faces in its cross-border activities," he said.
As noted, the tool focuses on African integration by targeting businesses based in and trading across African countries.
The UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Vera Songwe, said the ACBI "is yet another measurement infrastructure" that will help assess the extent to which broader developments related to integration and trade are implemented; as well as understand the business sector's perceptions of trading under free trade agreements already in force in African countries.
Vera Songwe, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, speaks at the 54th session of the ECA Conference of Ministers in Dakar.
It is not a measure of what a particular country is doing but a measure of how easy it is for someone in one country to set up a business in another country, Songwe said.
The Index aims to look at how easy it is to do business between African countries, to trade among each other and how easy it is for a Cameroonian, for example, to set up business in Kenya and vice versa.
It will help identify bottlenecks and address issues so that the African private sector can conduct business as seamlessly in their country of origin as anywhere else on the continent.
Following the launch of the Index in 2018, experts began piloting and refining it as a tool to measure and compare the views of businesses across Africa on the implementation of the Area. After phase one, in Cameroon and Zambia, the methodology was refined.
Surveys were conducted in seven more countries: Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa.
Karingi said they now target to cover 13 countries by July.
A report with results from the second phase of the roll-out was presented on Sunday. As found out, among others, Karingi noted, cross-border trade is more challenging for female-owned firms, something that policymakers need to pay attention to and help fix.
In the third phase, the new tool will be rolled out in DR Congo, Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia.
The Index differs from other integration indices, since it is informed entirely by private-sector perceptions, not by secondary data, making it truly representative of African business.
Prudence Sebahizi, the chief technical adviser on AfCFTA, requested the Economic Commission for Africa to enhance the new tool such that it can, in future, also able to measure or assess the status of rules and regulations that impact on trade "and what interventions can be made to improve trade performance."
"My point is: the ACBI has provided outcomes of national consultations based on private sector perceptions. However, no concrete reasons for such perceptions are provided nor actions proposed to improve the perceptions," Sebahizi later told The New Times.
The AfCFTA Secretariat is planning to undertake AfCFTA Trade Policy Reviews that will assess the status of national trade-related policies that affect the implementation of AfCFTA and propose concrete reforms to be undertaken to improve the situation.
The agreement establishing the AfCFTA officially became operational in 2021. The objectives of the Area are to create a single, continent-wide market and to enhance competitiveness at the enterprise level.
Source: Allafrica.com

Kenya plans to allow maize imports from outside the East African Community to mitigate the current spike in flour prices now at a historic high of Sh150 for a two-kilo packet.
Agriculture Cabinet secretary Peter Munya said the imports, which are expected to give consumers a reprieve, will also force farmers hoarding their produce to release it to the market.
He said the decision on when the imports would start and volumes to be shipped in would be made in the next couple of days with the consignment expected to arrive in 45 days from the date that the orders would be made.
“We are going to run out of maize in the next few months and to control the rising cost of flour, we need to import the produce,” said Mr Munya.
This will be the first maize imports from outside of the EAC bloc since 2017.
He said the imports would be restricted to what is needed by those who would be licensed to avoid shipping in excessive stocks by unscrupulous traders.
The price of a 90-kilo bag of maize has shot to Sh4,500 from Sh2,800 in December and Sh3,700 in March on the back of a tightening supply in the market. The ministry said last month that farmers were holding onto 85 percent of the total stock of maize in the county, as they anticipated better prices in the future.
The food balance sheet report for March showed that growers were holding 8.5 million bags of maize stocks out of 10.1 million bags of 90Kgs, which has left millers facing a shortage of maize.
The report indicated that millers and traders have a paltry 1.5 million bags with the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) holding zero grains.
Millers have been complaining that the flow of stocks from local farmers has been dwindling, pointing out that the shortage will be acutely felt in the coming days.
Mr Munya said at the moment there is a shortage of supply to Kenya from the regional markets as most stocks from Uganda are heading to South Sudan where they are fetching a good price
Source: Business Daily

Nairobi — Botswana, Uganda, and Ghana are the top countries with the most women business owners in Africa, the 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) has revealed.
The three countries ranked at 38.5 percent, 38.4 percent, and 37.2 percent by the index benchmark indicator which is calculated as a percentage of total business owners.
MIWE focuses on putting the spotlight on the significant socio-economic contribution of women entrepreneurs around the world, including in Africa, and provides insights on the factors driving and inhibiting their advancement.
The report listed lack of funding, fewer opportunities for higher-level education, as well as structural barriers as some of the factors which hinder women's advancement.
Botswana, however, scores in the top 15 economies globally in terms of advancement outcomes for women, particularly as far as performance by income is concerned, out-performing high-income and developed economies such as Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Australia.
Botswana also scores highly in MIWE 2021's 'women's labor force participation rates, ranking 13th globally.
Encouragingly, although 'women's entrepreneurial activity rate' declined in most economies, a number of African countries saw gains in this area, indicating a strong positive entrepreneurial response to the pandemic. Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, South Africa, and Botswana all performed well in 'women's entrepreneurial activity rate' with Nigeria, Angola and Ghana ranking in the joint first place.
These rankings are despite the fact that in Nigeria and Angola 'government SME support' (ranked 62 and 53 respectively) and 'general access to finance' (ranked 61 and 63 respectively) are near the bottom of the rankings.
Ghana scores slightly better on these metrics at 44 for 'government SME support' and 37 for 'access to finance'. Ghana is ranked 6th globally (69.7 percent) for 'entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions.
In both Nigeria and Angola, women's entrepreneurial activity rate exceeded men's even though women tend to be marginalized in terms of opportunities. Both economies display a strong, optimistic culture where there are 'perceived business opportunities. These positive and healthy entrepreneurial attitudes boost women's aspiration to become more financially independent.
According to the MIWE, Nigeria also ranked second globally for the number of 'women professional and technical workers (59.1 percent) while Angola ranked second globally in hiring intentions with 16.4percent of adults planning to employ six or more people in the next five years.
In addition, Angola ranked first globally in 'female opportunity-driven entrepreneurship' and sixth in 'self-perceived business capabilities'.
"Women in Botswana, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and Angola stand out as excellent examples of women's determination to provide for themselves and their families, despite facing financial, regulatory and technical challenges. In these economies women are able to leverage on opportunities in their respective environments to be business owners, leaders and professional or technical workers," said Ebehijie Momoh, Country Manager and Area Business Head for West Africa at Mastercard.
In Malawi, a less wealthy economy, women continue to defy the odds and are making strong inroads in the business world despite socio-cultural barriers and infrastructural constraints such as a lack of government SME support, poor access to entrepreneurial finances, and severe lack of opportunities for education. The gender gaps in entrepreneurial activity rate in Malawi are amongst the narrowest on a global scale.
Source: Capital FM