Egypt To Benefit From More Intra-Africa Trade

Two recent expert reports supply evidence of Egypt’s unique potential to benefit from a more fully implemented African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. They are helping to fuel much needed optimism about the future of an economy battered by short-term geopolitical and other challenges that have led to symptoms such as 38% inflation last September.

“Egypt has what it takes to play a key role,” said Landry Signé, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, and professor at the Thunderbird School of Management, a business school in the United States. “For SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) and larger companies, there are opportunities everywhere.”

The analytical reports were bookended by last year’s $7 billion World Bank deal (to support private sector jobs, health and education, and climate change adaptation) and a new $5 billion loan program with International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced this month, which in turn came on the heels of a $35 billion accord with the Emirati sovereign wealth fund ADQ. After the IMF deal, the World Bank decided to chip in another $3 billion.

The AfCFTA-Egypt reports come from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based club of rich countries, and the Trade Law Center (tralac) in Western Cape, South Africa. Both suggest that Egypt is well placed to benefit from and help advance AfCFTA.