President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame has congratulated Ghana for winning the bid to host the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He said he fully endorses the choice of Ghana for the secretariat.
Mr. Kagame made the disclosure in a Facebook post on Sunday.
I agree with the proposal of the Executive Council designating Ghana as our choice to host the AfCFTA Secretariat. I congratulate them as well.
Ghana was selected to host the secretariat at the 12thAfrican Union Extraordinary Summit in Niamey, Niger over the weekend.
Ghana beat competition from Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar and Senegal.
The core mandate of the Secretariat will be to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement, which has since been ratified by 25 member states.
President Akufo-Addo in reading Ghana’s acceptance speech said the country is committing $10 million for the project.
“Ghana is ready to donate US$10 million to the African Union to support the operationalisation of the Secretariat. I have set up an inter-Ministerial Committee of my government to work with the AU Commission towards this end,” he indicated.
Paul Kagame believes that the next process after the historic meeting in Niger is to finalize other negotiations and operational instruments “in a timely manner.”
He also thanked the President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou for his leadership in ensuring that arrangements towards the AfCFTA go that far.
“I commend President Issoufou for his comprehensive report. Rwanda fully agrees with its recommendations. We particularly concur on two points. One, the need to cater for small-to-medium cross-border traders, by simplifying trade regimes applicable to them. Two, the decision to commence trading under the AfCFTA on July 1st, 2020,” he added.
