On the 4th May, 2021 the Gambia Youth Chamber of Commerce (GYCC) with the support from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) organized a two (2) Day Awareness Raising and Training Workshop-On AfCFTA NTBs and its Reporting procedures for Rural Youth and women Cross Border Traders and potential exporters.The event was design to Enhancing the participation of rural youth and women enterprises in exploiting existing and potential opportunities within the AfCFTA and To create awareness on the AfCFTA developed online mechanism to deal with NTBs and reporting.
According to The Gambia National AfCFTA Strategy, the Gambia has a young rapidly growing population. The median age in The Gambia is 19.9 years, while population growth was 3.0% in 2017. This youthful population can provide a demographic dividend if provided with economic opportunity as well as the training and skills set. One critical challenge however is youth unemployment. In 2018, youth unemployment in The Gambia was 41.5%
The African Union Agenda 2063 ‘The Africa We Want’ which is the blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the feature has one of its flagship projects the establishment of Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). AfCFTA is expected to increase net real income by between $2.8 billion and $100 billion, depending on the degree of liberalization, and lead to more domestic investment, particularly in infrastructure (African Economic Outlook 2019). The realization of these objectives was brought closer following the signature of the AfCFTA’s agreement by 44 African Countries on 21st March 2018, the agreement entry into force on 30th May, 2019 and the launching of the operational phase of AfCFTA on 7th July, 2019.
The AfCFTA is an opportunity to help expand access to market within sub region and reduce youth unemployment, if its benefits are well tapped by the growing youthful population in the MSME sector of The Gambia. One of the main challenges that MSMEs could face in exploring the AfCFTA is Non-Tariff Barriers (NTB).
The African union has recently established an online platform to enable member states to lodge complaints in reporting, monitoring and eliminating NTBs. GYCC were recently part of selected BSOs in the Gambia and Africa at large who were trained on reporting NBTs and how we could work with Country focal persons.
The Gambia entrepreneurship ecosystem’s knowledge about the existence of such platforms is very limited and victims also don’t know how to report NTBs if encountered. GYCC therefore recognises the need to conduct an Awareness Raising and Training Workshop-On AfCFTA agreement, its immediate opportunities, Certifications processes, NTBs and its Reporting procedures for Youth and women export potentials and Cross Border Traders in rural Gambia.
The workshop will enable Youth and women Cross Border Traders and export potential enterprises within URR, LRR, CRR and NBR, to have an understand of the AfCFTA agreement, NTBs, know where and how to report them. GCCI and GIEPA will be invited as resource person to present on product testing, certification etc. as the export requirements