Wamkele Mene, the secretary general of the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA Secretariat, says that the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump and the end of the US's longstanding Africa Growth Opportunity Act AGOA provide an opportunity for Africa to pivot from dependence and external support to self-sufficiency.
"The point I make is that Donald Trump is doing what Donald Trump is doing for the US. We have to do what we have to do for our continent," he told the ongoing Intra African Trade Fair IATF2025 in Algiers, Algeria.
"In the short-term, we're going to suffer, but in the medium to long-term, we have the capability to pivot by leveraging on the AfCFTA, leveraging on trade finance, on all of the tools that our development finance institutions are able to mobilise and put at our disposal. I do not see why we cannot succeed in three to four years' time."