The African Union (AU) has announced a slate of events to mark this year’s “Africa Integration Day”.
Since 2019, when the Union’s Heads of State charged the Commission to commemorate efforts underway to unify the continent on 7th July of every year, a tradition has developed to hold events throughout early July to examine the major trends and developments shaping Africa’s integration journey.
2022 will be no exception.
Two main events, co-created with strategic partners, have been placed on the African Union calendar.
Between 6th and 8th July, 2022, a physical event shall be held in Lusaka, Zambia, to explore the e-commerce potential of the Single African Market.
On July 8th, 2022, the Boma of Africa returns for its third run in a three-part exposition of major pan-African initiatives and a global symposium to take stock of progress towards the AU’s Agenda 2063, which holds out strong hope for Africa’s emergence as a global political and economic power in this 21st century.
Part one of the Boma focuses on the launch of a continental digital trading corridor to promote implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement through single window interoperability systems across customs of the AU Member States, a digital ecosystem of interlinked e-government and private apps, and a single digital business directory and social credit system for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and startups (AfCFTA Number and AfCFTA Caravan).
This AfCFTA Hub concept brings together the AfCFTA Secretariat, national governments and major private sector innovators in a unified digital framework known as the “AfCFTA Hub Network”. His Excellency, former
President of Niger, H.E. Mahamadou Issifou, the AfCFTA Champion, will launch the Hub.
Part two of the Boma follows the Boma’s tradition of recent years by bringing together Heads of State, continental captains of industry, and global thought leaders and c-suite corporate executives to deliberate on critical issues shaping Africa’s long-term strategy for socioeconomic transformation.
Matters under deliberation include innovative methods for relieving Africa of the current financial and supply chain crises, youth and gender empowerment, and the resilience prospects of new technologies and cross-border trade in a time of pandemics, energy transitions, and renewed great power conflicts.
Part three of the Boma is the climax of the event. Bringing together African Union departments and agencies, a continental eHealth backbone and its African Vaccine Passport module shall be launched by the Africa CDC with support from international partners, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Union, Government of India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the United States of America and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
A detailed program can be found on www.africaboma.com. Registration is free and open at: www.afcfta.app/boma2022/register.
The Boma of Africa is curated by the African Union and AfroChampions, under the terms of their strategic partnership, and sponsored by the AfCFTA Hub Network and the continental private sector.
About the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
The AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area since the formulation of the World Trade Organisation, measured by the number of countries participating.
It aims to bring together all 55 member states of the African Union, covering a market of more than 1.3 billion people, including a growing middle class and a combined gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion.
It works towards several objectives, most importantly to create a single market for goods and services, having the potential to boost intra-African trade by 52.3 percent.
