Industrial development and production for regional trade continue to collectively jolt the growth of the continent in significant ways to address unemployment, improve agriculture, manufacturing, and social transformation. Africa’s march towards claiming the 21st century and attaining Agenda 2063 calls for increased investments in agricultural value chains, infrastructure development to support cross-border trade, building more smart and liveable cities, leveraging technology to improve manufacturing, increasing trade in services, harnessing knowledge economy for people-centered development, mobilizing resources and de-risking investments, fostering the use of quality data for long-term and real-time planning, turning around the extractive sector while remaining good stewards of the environment and climate change. Above all, quality leadership and institutions are key in delivering the Africa we want in our lifetime.

Democratizing trade and development make local and regional trade useful avenues for strategic investments that underpin Africa’s sustainable and inclusive human development. Support towards AfCFTA implementation at the continental level through regional entities/organizations or at the national level needs to account for and prepare firms to build their capabilities for both public and private firms to gain traction. Building the capacity of stakeholders and focusing on the various aspects of investment protection, facilitation, promotion, and outward direct investment within the AfCFTA framework enhances firms to plug onto possible opportunities for accelerating the implementation process and gains for competitive continental trade, industrial development, and sustainable economic transformation.