Opening up African borders

Abdelmonem Fawzi

The Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee, widely known as PAFTRAC and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), have conducted a survey over 400 C-level executives for the official launch of the Africa CEO Trade Survey report.

The report highlights numerous challenges and opportunities faced by major companies and small and mid-sized enterprises in Africa.

A presentation will be made during the event to explore the key results of the Africa CEO Trade Survey, a panel discussion with key stakeholders on the latest developments of the AfCFTA.

This survey will provide feedback on shaping the policy recommendations that will come out of the report.

This feedback will help shape and influence policies around AfCFTA, will give the chance to key stakeholders to talk about the latest developments and find out how the AfCFTA can advance the business.

The good news is that all Africans are already convinced and have realised that opening up Africa’s borders to travel will drive investment and an economic rebound, according to the authors of the 2021 Africa Visa Openness Index.

Published annually since 2016, the Index measures African countries’ openness to travellers from all parts of the continent.

This year’s edition of the index found that the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic substantially impacted free movement.

“In this new era of travel, safety and hygiene protocols have become as important as travel documentation and visa formalities,” said the report, jointly released by the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission.

“The evidence is clear: the countries that make it simpler for Africa’s business people, tourists, students, and workers to visit their territories, are the countries that stand to attract more investments and talent,” it added.

“Those countries are the ones whose economies will recover quickly,” said Khaled Sherif, the African Development Bank’s vice-president for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery.

Monique Nsanzabaganwa, the deputy chairperson of the African Union Commission, said the Covid-19 crisis has made one thing very certain: Africa needs to be more self-sufficient.

“To get there, we need to boost intra-African trade, and that means fewer visa restrictions,” he said.

The 2021 Visa Openness Index also makes a compelling case for streamlining the visa process for young Africans.

“All young people need is the freedom to move around the continent as they develop into Africa’s entrepreneurs and business leaders,” the index says.

The Index shows that 36 countries have improved or maintained their Visa Openness Index score since 2016.

More than 80% of the countries that have made gains in openness are low-income or lower-middle-income countries, the index says.

It mentions Namibia, Morocco, and Tunisia as countries that have made the most progress in visa openness.

A new survey of African CEOs from 46 countries conducted by PAFTRAC found that CEOs were confident that their businesses would grow in the next year.

A majority of the CEOs is also optimistic about the economic outlook of their industry, the survey says.

In addition, 87% of respondents believe that there will be an increase in intra-African trade as a result of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

Overall, Africa is almost evenly split between countries with a liberal visa policy and those that partially restrict entry from other African states.

A quarter of African countries welcome some or all African visitors without visas and another quarter, roughly, permits some or all African visitors to obtain a visa on arrival.

Twenty-four countries offer electronic visas, up from 15 five years ago, according to the survey.

The Africa Visa Openness Index aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Protocol on the Free Movement of People and, in particular, advances the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, with a market of 1.3 billion people.

By supporting the free movement of people, we make it easier for Africans to do business in Africa.

“The free movement of people, especially workers, could help plug skills’ gaps, while enabling countries to fix skills mismatches in their labour markets,” said Jean-Guy Afrika, the officer-in-charge of the Regional Integration Coordination Office at the African Development Bank.

Private actors alone can carry the weight of regional and continental integration.

In many cases, the private sector is infamous for ignoring issues related to inequality and labour standards. It is also known to perpetuate rent-seeking behaviour.

However, with the appropriate level of collaboration, perhaps the African model may hold up differently.

In summary, we should facilitate cooperation between the private sector and governments.

While state-actors facilitate integration from the top-down, private actors need to be empowered to facilitate integration from the bottom-up.

In order for private actors to be incentivised, the UNCTAD report recommends massive investments in infrastructure, accessibility of finance, developing and strengthening workforce skills, maintaining peace and security, and strengthening mechanisms for consultation with the private sector.

In addition to these, I recommend the development of trust between governments and organised private actors through repeat interactions and the democratisation of opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises so that they can play an active role in the integration process.