Digital technology has been considered by the African Union (AU) as paramount in meeting the African Continental Free Trade Zone (AFCFTA) operationalization timeline of 1st January 2021.

It is also considered as vital in the decision of African Leaders on the fast-tracking of processes leading to the commencement of trading to be implemented. This will also greatly aid the outstanding negotiations of the AfCFTA.

In a press release by the Directorate of Information and Communication yesterday, it was disclosed that due to the above directive in place, AU member states have outlined a number of concerns regarding the use of virtual systems, especially regarding infrastructure reliability, security, and confidentiality.

With regard to the concerns raised, the African Union Commission has offered to address the concerns that have come from the continental private sector notably the African Virtual Trade-Diplomacy Platform (AVDP), which is a part of the broader AVRIVA (African Virtual Resilient-Integration for a Vibrant Africa) framework.

The AVDP and the AVRIVA concepts have called for support towards a campaign to keep the AfCFTA in line with the current technological trend through enabling the Member States to participate effectively and securely in the outstanding negotiations of the AfCFTA with a purpose of ensuring that African countries are able to meet the new date for the start of trading under the AfCFTA of 1st January 2021.

However, to ensure that Member States’ outstanding concerns about the security and reliability of the pro-integration digital platforms are thoroughly addressed, the Commission has set a high-level committee of experts which include representatives from the Member States, relevant Departments, and Directorates of the AU Commission and security and Information technology specialists from the African private sector, to look at all aspects of the matter and present comprehensive guidance and advice to the Senior Trade Officials of Member States tasked with the AfCFTA program.

Since the concerns about the timely commencement of AfCFTA trading have come at a time when countries all over Africa are preparing to reopen their borders and economies, the commission which is urgently calling for coordinated and harmonized efforts in order to prevent confusion in the integration agenda is hopeful that digital technologies will play a very powerful role in driving positive cooperation among the Member States for a safe, smart and harmonized reopening process

With regard to the aforementioned, the mandate of the High-level Expert Committee has been expanded to include a review of the various options available to the Member States, including digital solutions, which could be used to roll out trade under the AfCFTA on 1st January 2021.

The establishment of a Pan-African technology platform to enable citizens of African countries to travel across borders (based on technical input from Koldchain BioCordon, the draft DABBIT protocol, and the latter’s reference archetype, PanaBIOS), as well as digitization of the biosurveillance and bioscreening protocols of the Africa Centres for Disease Control & Prevention (Africa CDC), which are being developed as part of the AU Open Corridor Initiative, is one of the options.

Another option is the design and deployment of a technology framework for aligning e-commerce and e-trading platforms, such as African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) developed by the Africa CDC, the “AfCFTA number” concept based on the draft TribeID protocol, and the African e-commerce platform Sokokuu promoted by AeTrade Group, with the needs of AFCFTA; and

While a broad initiative to enhance cybersecurity in multilateral affairs on the continent is also considered to be an option.

However, the recommendations of the High-level Expert Committee will be submitted to Senior Trade Officials for consideration during their 2020 September 5^th   meeting ahead of full endorsement by the AU Member States during the upcoming meeting of African Ministers of Trade on 30 September 2020, in a bid to sustain the political commitment to the use of these solutions trans-continentally.