A Tool to Fast Track the Continental Green and Ditigal Economy Agenda

Green and Digital Economy hugely facilitate SMEs and value chain symmetry within the ecosystem designed to centralize the Common or Single Market framework in Africa; particularly with regards to supporting youth-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports Digital Economy at it micro level.

As young people of the African Continent, we no long unaware of the huge role we play in driving the realization of a continental digital economic agenda; since the AfCFTA achievement cannot be complete without the role of the Youth; because at the center of the network of economic activities, commercial transactions and professional interactions that are enabled by information and communications technologies (ICT); youth with the courage, flare for fin-techs forms the bulk of demography of the private sector activities in facilitating the benefits of the AfCFTA in line with the mandate of UN-SDGs 2030 and AU-Agenda 2063.

Before the Concept of the AfCFTA and several policy negotiation at both regional and national levels, there was inspired digitized grik economic activities, such as Uber, Taxify, Amazon, etc. at their own micro level, laying emphasis on the Internet of Things (IoTs) to digitize and eliminate trade barrier, particular in the free movement of goods, serves and persons within borders.

At the Micro level, youth inclusion in the private sector is exercised within thin economic and commercial corridors. The idea for the push for more inclusive and formalization of the SMEs vendors (uncoordinated, informal) is to further enhance trade by removing or reducing trade and non-trade tariffs. How is the private sector involved in all of this? Will it be as participants or spectators? The African Youth Union Commission through its engagement so far - in broadening the conversation and addressing youth related trade barriers; with particular emphasis to the use of digital and other Fintech features to boost African Economy has been building capacities in partnership with the AU, UNIDO, ECOWAS, ARSO, AfroChampions, etc.; with realistic framework for youth inclusion the AfCFTA process. In our reports and recommendations, we believe that Government (AU member states) must allow the organized private sector take a bigger responsibility in the quest for an inclusive digital economic Africa.

Oftentimes, when reference is made to SMEs, what understanding immediately comes to mind is the informal sector; and the majority of the economy of Africa is precipitated from the informal sector, and is driven by youth and women. Questions which were recently answered in our flagship "Young Business Leaders Panel on Industrialization and the AfCFTA (YBLPI-AfCFTA)" project was the upshot of innovative ideas on how to formalize SMEs ecosystem towards digitally empowering the economy of the continent.

The African Youth Union Commission (AYUC) through it YBLPI-AfCFTA project has gotten a push and institutional encourage from the African Union Trade and Industry Department (AU-TID), AfroChampions Initiative, African Organization for Standardization (ARSO), ECOWAS, AU-ECOSOCC, Dangote Group, Djondo Fellowship, University of Africa, Organized Civil Society groups and private sector to drive youth inclusion in the Digital Economy Framework; where the AYUC is working with the stakeholders (AU-TID, etc.) to domesticate and localize the Digital e-Commerce Platform as incursion into the investment in broadening youth driven entrepreneurial ecosystems in linking African SMEs by formalizing them from the informal sector level they currently operate in.

Since 2018 July in Mauritania when the AfCFTA was lunched, the Youth Union Commission has committed developing workable framework and youth friendly mechanism for the AfCFTA achievement, and works round the clock mainstreaming youth-inclusive SMEs programme (particularly those largely engaged in the informal sector) to formalize and use the comparative advantage of digital economic agenda to accelerate linkages, value chains and value addition in the Single African Market framework and AfCFTA instrumentation.