Private Sector Participation is Essential to Improving Continental Trade in Africa

Intra-African trade remains low despite efforts from the African government to improve continental trading capacity. In the recent decade, intra-African trade accounted for about 12 percent of Africa’s total trade. One of the leading causes of low continental trade is the absence of a strong and efficient private sector. While the current trade framework focuses on lowering trade barriers, increasing the efficiency of the private sector’s productivity can improve Africa’s trading performance. The current framework necessitates a need to shift toward integrative private sector participation.

The private sector bears the main brunt of the trade constraints. While the public sector, through the government, negotiates and signs trade agreements, the consequences of the private sector play an integral part in African trade. It is why African governments must operate systems viable for private sector participation.

Poor infrastructure reduces by 40 percent in Africa, and per capita output grew by 2 percent. This lack of infrastructure capacity means that the private sector cannot compete at the highest level in terms of productivity…..

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