AfCFTA ‘African passport’ expected to roll out in 2021
I UNDERSTAND the African Union (AU) passport is expected to roll out in 2021 as part of the continent’s African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Residency firm Henley & Partners analyst Justice Malala says the initiative is crucial for AfCFTA’s success as it will ease travel within the continent. Despite being officially “launched” in 2016, the initiative has been plagued by delays as well as the COVID-19 pandemic which impacted its intended rollout in 2020.
One of its key aims is to exempt bearers from having to obtain visas for all 55 states in Africa.
So far, only government leaders, diplomats, and African Union officials have been issued with the passport.
Travel restrictions are being lifted across the continent, and this combined with the first approval and planned deployment of COVID-19 vaccines bodes well for the implementation of the AfCFTA in this year after the pandemic delayed the planned launch in July last year.
AfCFTA aims to bring together 1,3 billion people in a US$3,4 trillion economic bloc, creating a single market for goods and services in addition to a customs union with free movement of both capital and business travellers.
The passport forms part of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 which envisions an “integrated continent, politically united based on the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance”.
The African passport is the flagship project of this agenda and aims to remove restrictions on Africans ability to travel, work and live within their own continent.
The initiative aims at transforming Africa’s laws, which remain generally restrictive on the movement of people despite political commitment to bring down borders with the view to promoting the issuance of visas by member States to enhance free movement of all African citizens in all African countries.
The free movement of persons in Africa is expected to deliver several key benefits for all participating countries, such as:
• Boosting intra-Africa trade, commerce and tourism;
• Facilitating labour mobility, intra-Africa knowledge and skills transfer;
• Promoting pan-African identity, social integration and tourism;
• Improving trans-border infrastructure and shared development. Mark-Anthony Johnson