Enhancing African Free Trade Area : Reflections Underway In Yaounde

Within the context of promoting the free movement of people and goods, hence speeding the development process of Africa, the first international conference on leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area for higher education integration kicked off at the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) yesterday April 7, 2025. The two-day event is jointly organised by the international organisation OBREAL based in Spain, the Pan African University, Association of African Universities and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Chairs Programme under the theme, “Setting The Stage And Launching The Initiative.” This was in the presence of several members of the diplomatic corps, amongst them the Ambassador of Spain to Cameroon, Ignacio Garcia Lumbreras. The first plenary was dedicated to looking for synergies in the political and institutional framework of leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area. Other reflections centred on the two-way relationship between trade and higher education, how to articulate the multilateral, African, regional and national levels of collaboration, trade policy and higher education, developing synergies and “Teaming Europe” for African economic and higher education integration.   
A welcome statement from the Director of IRIC, Daniel Urbain Ndongo, notes that the intellectual gathering reflects the vision of the foundation fathers of the African Union in May 1963 and the emblematic project of Agenda 2063 on the “Africa We Want” which is an integrated and prosperous Africa made possible by Africans themselves. Given that trade guarantees solid integration, the Director of IRIC noted that the input of the higher education sector is imperative for such an objective to be attained. “You cannot talk about integration without the movement of people. ...