Somalia is moving closer to joining the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), with the country planning to deposit its ratification instrument in September and begin preparations for its first shipment under the continental trade agreement.
The development followed a three-day visit to Mogadishu by AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, who met government officials, trade unions and representatives of the private sector.
If Somalia completes the process as planned, it will become the 50th country to ratify the AfCFTA agreement. But for Somali businesses, ratification is only the beginning.
The immediate challenge is turning the agreement into actual trade. Somalia will need to finalise tariff arrangements, apply AfCFTA preferential tariffs through its customs system and complete outstanding commitments on trade in services through the East African Community.
The AfCFTA Secretariat has also committed to supporting Somalia towards its first shipment under the agreement, creating a practical test of how Somali goods can reach markets across Africa.
“Somalis are natural traders,” Mene told private sector representatives in Mogadishu, pointing to opportunities beyond East Africa in West, Central, Southern and North Africa.
The Somali Chamber of Commerce and Industry said businesses need greater certainty, affordable finance and better infrastructure to take advantage of the continental market.
Somalia already has a national AfCFTA implementation strategy and a committee overseeing the process. Its membership in the East African Community also gives the country an existing framework to build on as it prepares for implementation.
For Somalia, the next milestone is no longer simply joining AfCFTA. It is getting a Somali product across an African border under the agreement.
That first shipment could provide an early measure of whether the promise of Africa’s single market is beginning to translate into business opportunities on the ground.
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