Africa’s free trade ambitions hinge on national parliaments – Deputy Minority leader

Africa’s drive towards a single market will ultimately be decided not by treaties signed in Addis Ababa or Accra, but by the actions of national legislatures, Ghana’s Deputy Minority Leader Patricia Appiagyei has said, urging parliaments across the continent to take a more active role in translating AfCFTA commitments into domestic law.

Speaking at the closing session of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues 2026 in Accra under the theme ‘Make Africa Borderless Now’, Ms Appiagyei argued that the continent’s integration project risks stalling unless governments move beyond declarations and ensure practical implementation at home.

“Treaties do not implement themselves. Protocols do not enforce themselves,” she said. “It is through parliamentary domestication, budget approvals and sustained oversight that continental commitments acquire legal force within our jurisdictions.”

Her remarks reflect a growing recognition among policymakers that while Africa has built an extensive legal architecture for integration — from the Abuja Treaty to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) — execution has lagged behind ambition.

The AfCFTA, which seeks to create the world’s largest free trade area by number of participating countries, promises to boost intra-African trade, strengthen regional supply chains and reduce dependence on raw commodity exports. Yet non-tariff barriers, inconsistent customs procedures and regulatory bottlenecks continue to hamper cross-border commerce.

Ms. Appiagyei said parliaments must ensure domestic trade laws, administrative systems and institutions are aligned with AfCFTA obligations, while holding executives accountable for compliance. “This is where integration will either succeed or fail,” she noted. “Not in communiqués, but in national legislation and enforcement.”

She singled out the AfCFTA’s dispute settlement mechanism as central to building confidence in the single market. Without a credible, rules-based system to resolve trade disagreements, she warned, investors and businesses would remain cautious. “A market of this scale can only function if its rules are predictable and enforceable,” she said, describing the mechanism as “the backbone” of the agreement.

Beyond trade disputes, she called for renewed efforts to operationalise the long-proposed African Court of Justice, arguing that a functioning supranational judicial authority would help ensure uniform interpretation of continental obligations and reduce legal uncertainty.

Analysts say such legal clarity is critical if Africa is to attract long-term manufacturing and logistics investments. While intra-African trade has historically hovered below 20 per cent of total trade — far lower than in Europe or Asia — supporters of the AfCFTA say improved enforcement and harmonisation could unlock new regional value chains in agro-processing, pharmaceuticals and light industry.

For countries such as Ghana, positioning themselves as commercial and logistics hubs, smoother borders and predictable rules could lower transaction costs for businesses and encourage exporters to scale up operations across the continent.

Ms. Appiagyei rejected suggestions that deeper legal integration would erode national sovereignty, arguing instead that shared rules would strengthen collective bargaining power. “A borderless Africa must also be a law-governed Africa,” she said. “Rules give certainty to businesses, investors and our own citizens.”

She pledged the support of Ghana’s Minority leadership for the ‘Make Africa Borderless Now’ campaign, committing to legislative oversight and domestication of continental frameworks through Parliament. Her message was blunt: Africa has already agreed on the framework. The task now is delivery. “Africa has signed,” she said. “Now Africa must implement.”

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