Free trade area provides Africa with new prospects
Industrialisation, Trade and Enterprise Development Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina (right) UK High Commissioner to Kenya Jane Marriott, and Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi tour Ibis farm in Meru County on February 3, 2021. The delegation was in the area to celebrate the UK-Kenya Free Trade Agreement between the two countries.
On this day in 1963, Kenya attained internal self-rule joining other African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) had been established a few days before on May 25, 1963.
The OAU formed the African Economic Community (AEC) for the mutual economic development of African countries. The AEC was intended to create free trade areas, customs unions, a single market, a central bank, and possibly common currencies. In the 1980s and 1990s, we witnessed the formation of many regional trading blocs across Africa.
