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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter

THE African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Continental Free Trade Area have partnered in coming up with initiatives aimed at stimulating industrial growth and development across the continent.

AfDB president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has said that his institution would integrate the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) into its country and regional integration strategies.

In a statement welcoming AfCFTA secretary-general, Mr Wamkele Mene, in Abidjan last week, Dr Adesina said: “The implementation of the free trade area will become a key component of the bank’s lending programme.

“We want to have a critical mass of AfCFTA-aligned investments.”

Dr Adesina said the bank would support the AfCFTA secretariat in implementing its various trade and industrial initiatives and programmes.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that the African Continental Free Trade Area is an industrial hub.

“The zone should become an area for manufacturing, not merely for trading,” he said.

Dr Adesina said the bank would work closely with the AfCFTA secretariat to ensure Africa produces at scale.

“We require a large industrial manufacturing zone that generates income and competes on a local and global scale.”

Mr Mene said the AfCFTA secretariat would help member States remove trade barriers to boost intra-African trade.

“But we cannot do so without the support of the African Development Bank. We would just be a trading hub with no real output,” he said.

Mr Mene noted that the AfCFTA provides Africa with a great opportunity to develop the necessary infrastructure to support trade and benefit Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

“We want the initiative to run as an African initiative supported by our heads of state and our development finance institutions,” he said. – @KazungaOliver