Namibia has launched its national strategy for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

This comes amid the question of whether the country has addressed infrastructure bottlenecks, a crucial aspect for the free trade area to work optimally.

By joining the African Continental Free Trade Area, Namibia has unlocked access to a market of 1,3 billion people, providing opportunities for local entrepreneurs and the private sector to trade goods and services in a larger and more dynamic African market.

However, to optimize benefits from this trade agreement, the country needs to address a number of challenges, infrastructure development being the main one for the country to improve its competitiveness of its products and identify new African markets for domestic goods and services.

UNECA Director for Sub Regional Office for Southern Africa, Eunice Kamwendo said the infrastructure deficit remains the Achilles heel for Africa and continues to undermine economic growth and productivity and raises transportation costs, and reduce product competitiveness. For this, we must have an enduring solution if the continent is to fully achieve the objectives of the AfCFTA, and at the centre of that solution is critical infrastructure investments across the board. 

The just-launched strategy will be the framework that will enable stakeholders in Namibia to fully internalize and maximize opportunities from the larger continental market. 

The Strategy was formulated through widespread consultations with a broad range of public and private stakeholders and academia.

A well-crafted implementation will put Namibia in the best position to fully achieve its potential by increasing its share of Africa's trade and enhancing its competitiveness. 

Namibia joins Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe as the five countries in the sub-region that have completed the drafting of their national strategies for the free trade area.

Officially launching the strategy, Industrialisation and Trade Minister, Lucia Iipumbu says Namibia is preparing to take full advantage of the opportunities the AfCFTA brings.  

"For African leaders that are building on the work of our visionaries, the status quo cannot remain, where Africa continues to be a consumer of finished and high-value goods while continuing to export commodities in the form of raw materials. Our motive underpinning the AfCFTA is the development of the continent and her people. This means, adding value  to our own products, creating and establishing regional value chains that will enhance opportunities for jobs through manufacturing."

Ipumbu says to fast-track the implementation of the free trade area agreement, the development of an implementation strategy is critical as it leverages deeper integration within the framework of free trade area to facilitate an expansion of Namibia's trade and investment in Africa.

The national strategy has identified key value addition and trade opportunities and constraints, measures, and capacities required for it to take full advantage of the national, regional, and global markets within the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area. 

To fully optimize benefits from the trade agreement, there is also a need for each country to address issues pertaining to the removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers.

Namibia signed the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement in 2018.