Private sector must drive AfCFTA without gov’t handholding

— Rwanda’s Trade Minister

Rwanda’s Minister of Trade and Industry has challenged the continent’s private sector to take full ownership of the African Continental Free Trade Area, declaring that businesses “should have done it yesterday” rather than waiting for government guidance.

Speaking on the 3^rd episode of the AfCFTA podcast, Honourable Prudence Sebahizi said whilst the Guided Trade Initiative successfully introduced businesses to the agreement, the private sector must now trade organically without needing governments “to be in the middle.”

The minister, who has spent over two decades working on continental integration, including serving as director at the AfCFTA Secretariat before his ministerial appointment, offered a rare insider perspective on the agreement’s journey from dream to reality.

Sebahizi’s involvement with the AfCFTA began in March 2015 when he arrived in Addis Ababa on what he thought would be a three-month technical assistance assignment funded by the UK’s Department for International Development.

“I did not know that this was going to be a big project,” he recalled. “It was just an assignment to provide technical assistance to the African Union Commission.”

Within 24 hours of arrival, he had impressed the then Trade and Industry Commissioner with a comprehensive work plan, leading to a meeting with Deputy Chairperson, Erastus Mwencha, to discuss the commission’s vision for concluding the agreement. That assignment would extend far beyond three months, as Hon. Sebahizi became instrumental in driving negotiations that formally launched in Johannesburg in June 2015.

The minister identified several pivotal moments when the AfCFTA transformed from aspiration to achievable reality. The first came with the 2015 launch of negotiations, when Heads of State adopted an ambitious roadmap and guiding principles with a tight deadline of concluding the agreement by 2017.

“Starting from 2012, now we are in 2015, we were only left with less than three years to conclude the agreement,” he said. “It was ambitious but it was also exciting. We had no opportunity to delay the process. From day one we were running very fast.”

“Technically we were well equipped. And also politically we were well backed,” Mr Sebahizi said. “That gave me full assurance that it’s a matter of time.”

Throughout the negotiation period, the AfCFTA consistently ranked number one among the African Union’s ten flagship projects under Agenda 2063, appearing on every assembly agenda—a level of political momentum “that has never happened to any other project in African Union history,” according to the minister.

Looking ahead, Hon. Sebahizi identified digital trade as potentially transformative for the continent’s integration efforts.
“The protocol on digital trade, to me at this current level of technology, is going to cover everything that we’ve been doing traditionally,” he said. “When we talk about trade, we are talking about digital trade because every trade ecosystem has to be digitised.”

He outlined a comprehensive vision encompassing e-commerce platforms, digitally monitored warehouses, electronic cargo tracking systems, digitised customs procedures, and continent-wide trade tracking mechanisms.
For youth and small enterprises particularly, digital technology represents a revolution in accessibility, he argued, noting that mobile penetration has improved dramatically across Africa. “Through mobile payment systems, everyone has access to money,” the minister said. “In the past, you could only have access to money when you have a bank account, when you have a job or a big business. But today, everyone can make daily transactions on the phone.”

Beyond digital trade,  Sebahizi highlighted the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System as the second most important implementation tool after the Guided Trade Initiative.
“For every trade transaction, there has to be a payment,” he noted. “If it is not made easier for the buyer to pay in local currency and for the seller to receive in their own currency, then we are going to incur a lot of cost.”

He also emphasised the intellectual property rights protocol as crucial for encouraging innovation, giving young entrepreneurs assurance that their innovations will be protected across all 55 African countries once registered in one.

The minister outlined specific objectives for measuring the AfCFTA’s success over the next decade. First, increasing intra-African trade from the current 15% to “beyond 30%, 40%, why not 50%,” by ensuring Africa produces what it currently imports from outside the continent.

Second, achieving full liberalisation where goods originating from Africa can access any African market duty-free and quota-free without facing non-tariff barriers.

Third, establishing multinational companies with presence in more than five African countries, leveraging the investment protocol.

Fourth, digitising all trade transactions on the continent through a single window system capable of tracking trade across all borders and ports.
“This will be a very good tool for us to make impactful decisions,” he said.

As minister, Mr Sebahizi has positioned Rwanda as a model for AfCFTA implementation.
The country was among the first to participate in the Guided Trade Initiative and has established AfCFTA trading companies that navigate the bureaucracy and share experiences—both positive and negative—with the broader private sector. “We have aligned all our policies and legal instruments to those of the AfCFTA,” he said. “We have created a business-friendly environment for investors from Rwanda and outside Rwanda.”

The minister was emphatic that whilst governments set policy frameworks, private sector ownership is essential. “The private sector is going to be at the heart of the AfCFTA,” he said. “The private sector has always been driving economies.”
He identified private financial institutions, the African Export-Import Bank, and the African Development Bank as key partners for financing continental infrastructure projects in logistics, roads, railways, and energy.
“There is nothing that the private sector cannot do if they understand what will be the benefits of the AfCFTA,” he declared.

As the AfCFTA moves from guided initiatives to organic private sector engagement, voices like Hon. Sebahizi’s that combine technical expertise, political experience, and practical implementation knowledge will be crucial to ensuring the agreement delivers on its transformative promise.

 

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