- ACET CEO Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi says the real challenge to AfCFTA is political commitment, not lack of money
- She criticizes African governments for signing trade deals without enforcing domestic reforms
- Mavis calls for stronger regulatory action and better resource allocation across the continent
The Chief Executive Officer of the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, has stated that the primary barrier to successfully implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is not a lack of funding, but rather insufficient political will.
Speaking at the 2025 Citi Business Forum under the theme “The Global Tariffs Dispute: Navigating Ghana’s Recovery Strategy,” she pointed out that while African leaders are often eager to sign trade agreements such as AfCFTA, they frequently fall short when it comes to enacting the necessary domestic policies and reforms to bring them to life.
“What’s really lacking is political commitment,” she said. “We sign these agreements, but fail to implement the supporting regulations and policies at the national level. It’s easy to blame financial constraints, but that’s not the core issue.”
Owusu-Gyamfi argued that Africa does have access to financial resources, but they are often misallocated. She cited underutilized pension funds with low returns overseas and inconsistent enforcement of tax laws on multinational corporations operating in Africa as examples.
“We often focus on illicit financial flows by politicians, but overlook the massive sums multinationals extract without paying their fair share in taxes. If we addressed that, we’d see that money isn’t the problem—it’s how we choose to use it,” she concluded.
