The Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area officially became operational in 2021, making it the cornerstone of trade integration in Africa. The objectives of the Area are to create a single, continent-wide market and to enhance competitiveness at the enterprise level. The African Continental Free Trade Area Country Business Index is the first comprehensive tool based on a robust methodological framework in which data are collected in a way that allows businesses to express their views on implementation of the Area.

Following the launch of the Index in 2018, the Economic Commission for Africa began piloting and refining it as a tool to measure and compare the views of businesses across Africa on implementation of the Area. The figure below shows the countries selected for the three phases of the pilot study. After phase 1, which was conducted in Cameroon and Zambia, the methodology was refined and surveys were conducted in seven more countries: Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa. The present report includes results from this second phase of the roll-out. In the third phase, the Index will be rolled out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia.

Please read the full report here.