AU shifts to technology to sustain trade in the face of the pandemic

The African Union has moved its African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) operations online citing movement restrictions occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.

AU Directorate of Information and Communication said that member states have identified a raft of factors for consideration ahead of the January 2021 deadline of AfCFTA trading operationalisation.

“AU member states have outlined a number of concerns regarding the use of virtual systems, especially regarding infrastructure reliability, security and confidentiality,” it said in a press statement.

The body is relying on public-private partnership under the umbrella of AfroChampions Initiative to address the fears of compromise of the systems.

In this regard, African Virtual Trade-Diplomacy Platform (AVDP), which is part of the broader AVRIVA (African Virtual Resilient-Integration for a Vibrant Africa) have pledged support for the union.

The AU stated, “The AVDP and the AVRIVA concept aim to rally support towards a campaign to keep the AfCFTA on track using technology by enabling Member States to participate effectively and securely in the outstanding negotiations of the AfCFTA.”

“This will help to ensure that African countries are able to meet the new date for the start of trading under the AfCFTA of January 1, 2021, as set by African Heads of State and Government, who are strongly committed to getting the AfCFTA agenda back on track after the postponement of the start of trading initially set for 1 July 2020.”

Working through the AVDP initiative will be a contingent of professionals drawn from the member states working jointly to ensure seamless flow of information and enhanced trading activity.

“… the Commission constituted a high-level committee of experts, including representatives from Member States, relevant Departments and Directorates of the AU Commission and security and Information technology specialists from the African private sector, to examine all aspects of the matter and present comprehensive guidance and advice to the Senior Trade Officials of Member States tasked with the AfCFTA program,” the union reveals.

The team will seek to come up with Pan African technology to facilitate cross border movement of goods and services. This, the union says can be achieved through ‘digitisation of the biosurveillance and bioscreening protocols of the Africa Centres for Disease Control & Prevention (Africa CDC), an edifice of the AU Open Corridor Initiative. Other areas are cybersecurity and e-commerce platforms such as the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) developed by the Africa CDC.

IT infrastructure

AU is banking on a number of top digital solutions among them PanaBios – a bio-surveillance and bio-screening suite which would ensure continuity of business in the region during the coronavirus pandemic.

This is a technology that works by mapping Covid-19 hotspots throughout the continent and further building risk models that create a base for standardised protocols to prevent transmission of the disease.

Using similar risk models tied to testing across the continent, an AU outfit - AfroChampions is mobilising private sector resources to keep solutions such as PanaBios sustainable to make it possible to verify the health status of international travelers across borders. The Koldchain BioCordon Group - R&D is the Partnership behind developing the core algorithms powering the solutions.

South Africa currently leads the chart of Covid-19 pandemic cases in Africa with over 550,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths. Egypt follows distantly with over 96,000 cases and over 5,000 deaths.

Most AU member states such as Kenya were forced to lock their borders to prevent the spread of the virus. This had a negative bearing on the regional trade.