Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, has charged Africa on robust regional collaboration and trade facilitation, insisting that Africa’s economic renaissance lies in extensive trade, not charity.
Mbah, who insisted that Africa had all that it takes to build its own table, rather than wait to be invited to the table, also tasked the continent on fully exploiting the power of intra-Africa trade and opportunities inherent in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He gave the charge yesterday while delivering the closing remarks of the session: ‘The Africa Opportunity: Regional Collaboration and Trade Facilitation’, on the second and final day of the 2025 Commonwealth Enterprises and Investment Summit in London.
At the session, which focused on how Africa could leverage the potential in its 1.3 billion population to boost trade and investment, the governor noted that such integration and trade facilitation had never been more compelling than now in the face of harsh global and existential headwinds facing the continent.
“Such large population, plus Africa’s combined GDP of $3.4 trillion and the fact that the continent has 65 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land means Africa should actually be building the table – and not waiting to be invited to the table,” he said.
He regretted that most of the objectives, including removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, for which AfCFTA was established, were yet to be actualised, wondering how Africa’s $40 billion annual spending on food imports could be rationalised.
Nevertheless, the governor said that “it is not all doom and gloom,” noting that it took the European Union over 35 years to launch its Single Market, but charged Africa to learn from the EU by taking action, prioritising regulatory frameworks, human capital, and infrastructure, among others.
It is recalled that Mbah had during the first day of the summit on Monday, led the State Governors Roundtable session where he marketed investment opportunities in Enugu State to global leaders and investors.
