{"id":3237,"date":"2026-08-26T19:17:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=3237"},"modified":"2026-08-26T19:17:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:17:38","slug":"kagame-afcfta-chief-discuss-expanding-trade-across-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/26\/kagame-afcfta-chief-discuss-expanding-trade-across-africa\/economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagame, AfCFTA Chief discuss expanding trade across Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"898\" src=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lddd-1024x898.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lddd-1024x898.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lddd-300x263.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lddd-1536x1347.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lddd-767x673.jpeg 767w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lddd.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Paul Kagame and African Continental Free Trade Area Secretary-General Wamkele Mene discussed ways to strengthen trade among African countries during talks in Kigali on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mene met Kagame at Village Urugwiro, according to a statement from the Office of the President. Their discussions focused on what AfCFTA member states need to do to implement their commitments and achieve the broader goal of increasing trade across the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AfCFTA agreement entered into force in May 2019, while trading under the framework began on Jan. 1, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of October 2025, 50 of the 54 countries that had signed the agreement had ratified it, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"884\" src=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/innn.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/innn.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/innn-300x259.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/innn-768x663.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rwanda was among seven countries selected for the initial Guided Trade Initiative, which was launched to test preferential trade under AfCFTA. The other participants were Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius and Tanzania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rwanda has since used the framework to access other African markets. In 2024, the government exported agricultural and livestock products to Ghana under AfCFTA, including 400 kilograms of coffee, 400 kilograms of tea and 100 liters of avocado oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The continental agreement seeks to create a single market for goods and services and reduce barriers to trade among African countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kagame also met Wednesday with Monica Geingos, former first lady of Namibia and chancellor of Kepler, a higher education institution in Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"912\" src=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ttttttttt.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ttttttttt.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ttttttttt-300x267.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ttttttttt-768x684.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Geingos was in Rwanda to attend an African conference focused on changing mindsets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the president\u2019s office, Kagame and Geingos discussed the role of education and ways to expand opportunities for young people to contribute to development in Rwanda and across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The meeting with Mene comes as African countries continue efforts to translate the continental trade agreement into increased trade and stronger economic links among member states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Paul Kagame and African Continental Free Trade Area Secretary-General Wamkele Mene discussed ways to strengthen trade among African countries during talks in Kigali on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,43,3,53,35,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news","category-current_affairs","category-economy","category-featured-stories","category-regional","category-top_stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3241,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237\/revisions\/3241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}