Realizing Pan-African Economic Integration: Appraisal of Legal and Institutional Frameworks of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
Abstract
This study carefully evaluates the legal and institutional frameworks of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as vehicles for facilitating Pan-African economic integration. The AfCFTA is the first major project of the African Union (AU) aimed at establishing a continental market with unrestricted trade and investment opportunities and advancing industrialization by addressing trade barriers, investment enhancers and capacity for greater capacity utilization. The article begins with a discussion of the conceptual and theoretical history of regional integration and Pan-Africanism and provide a historical perspective by discussing earlier developments such as the Lagos Plan of Action and the Abuja Treaty. The author discusses the structure of the AfCFTA Agreement and its core legal instruments, which include the protocols on trade in goods and trade in services, as well as dispute settlement and the appendices on rules of origin and technical barriers. From there we analyse the AfCFTA, assess the roles and functions of four key institutions within the AfCFTA, namely AU Assembly, Council of Ministers, Secretariat and Dispute Settlement Body. While the legal architecture of the AfCFTA aligns with global engagement in terms of trade-and, the legal institutions and mechanisms provide for oversight and enforcement of the principles, the author identified several potential pitfalls that limit the true ambition and aspirations of the AfCFTA. These include concurrent participation in Regional Economic Communities (RECs), insufficient enforcement ability, infrastructure deficits, and insufficient political will. Comparing with the European Union (EU), a structural weakness in Africa's integration framework, particularly the lack of a supranational body. The study ends with a summary which identifies stronger institutional capacity, legal harmonization and political will as necessary precursor to AfCFTA becoming an operating engine of continental integration and economic transformation.
Keywords
Pan-African, AfCFTA, Economic Integration
Citations
IRE Journals:
Chris O. Itafu-Njar
"Realizing Pan-African Economic Integration: Appraisal of Legal and Institutional Frameworks of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 9 Issue 2 2025 Page 714-723
IEEE:
Chris O. Itafu-Njar
"Realizing Pan-African Economic Integration: Appraisal of Legal and Institutional Frameworks of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 9(2)
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