Young voices must be heard in trade discussions

The success of the African Continental Free Trade Area will depend, in large part, on the involvement of young people, said speakers at a COM2025 side event held to discuss making the AfCTFA work for African youth.  

Opening the session, Said Adejumobi, Director of ECA’s Strategic Planning, Oversight and Results Division, noted that with young people accounting for nearly 70% of the continent’s population, it was imperative that they played a key role in the new trade dispensation brought on by the agreement. 

“Mainstreaming African youth in the AfCFTA is not only a developmental question, it’s also a democratic question. If you have young people constituting such a large chunk of our population, they have the right to be at the table,” he observed. 

Claver Gatete, executive secretary of the ECA said trade is Africa’s “Marshall Plan” has to end structural problems and ensure its prosperity. The AfCFTA, he argued, will enable the continent to add value to its natural resources and create industries of the future. 

“The youth have a big role to play to ensure that we go from 15% of intra-African trade to 30% or even 60%,” he said, adding that the free trade area will create more jobs for young people across various sectors and more opportunities to build their own enterprises. 

The purpose of the event was therefore hear the voices of the youth so their ideas can inform policies and programmes under the agreement. 

Bening Ahmed, Secretary-General of the Pan African Youth Union expressed the appreciation of young people for efforts to include them in decision-making. 

Noting the continent’s youth are some of the most innovative people anywhere, Ahmed called on governments to coordinate with them in policymaking. 

“Our governments must begin to utilise young people at all levels of policy, especially in economic policy and fiscal and monetary policy regimes a way that allows their ingenuity to come to the fore and to propel this continent onto the path of growth, development, creating the quality of life that we require as Africans,” he said.