Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, made these remarks during his closing address at the session titled “The Africa Opportunity: Regional Collaboration and Trade Facilitation”, held at the 2025 Commonwealth Enterprises and Investment Summit in London.
During the session, which centered on how Africa can harness its 1.3 billion-strong population to drive trade and investment, the governor emphasized that the need for integration and trade facilitation has never been more urgent, given the severe global and existential challenges currently confronting the continent.
“With a population of over a billion, a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion, and 65 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, Africa should not be waiting for an invitation to the table—we should be building the table ourselves,” he said.
He pointed out that a major challenge lies in converting Africa’s immense potential into tangible economic development that directly improves the lives of its people. “One of the most effective paths forward is through trade, particularly intra-African trade, which is precisely what the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) aims to advance.”
Citing World Bank projections, he noted that AfCFTA can lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, increase incomes for 68 million, and grow Africa’s collective income by $450 billion by 2035.
However, the governor expressed concern that many of AfCFTA’s core goals, such as the elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, remain unfulfilled. He questioned the logic behind Africa’s continued annual expenditure of $40 billion on food imports, despite the continent’s vast agricultural potential