EU to Provide €40 Billion in Grants to Help Create Jobs in Africa

Addis Ababa June 28/2019 The European Union Commission has proposed a 40 billion Euros package to attract investments that would create at least 10 million jobs in Africa.

Addressing a two-day Horn of Africa continental free trade forum focusing on the pharmaceutical industry, EU Ambassador to the African Union, Ambassador Ranieri Sabatucci, said EU Commission fully supports the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

He pointed out that a massive support worthy 40 billion Euros of grants under the new Africa-European Alliance for Jobs and Growth is proposed as from 2021 to 2027 that would create 10 million jobs in Africa.

The Ambassador said preparing the economic partnership agreements, free trade agreements, “including the deep and comprehensive free trade areas and others in the countries north of Africa and other trade issues with the EU should be exploited to the greatest extent as building blocks to the benefit of the AfCFTA”.

The ambition is to further increase African exports and to attract investment in manufacturing and processing sectors and to encourage the creation of regional value chains through flexible rules of origin, he stated.

The Ambassador said the AfCFTA has an extra-ordinary potential to be economically transformative for Africa by creating the world’s largest integrated common market since the establishment of the WTO.

“Our support for the AfCFTA has a lot to do with our history. It was through the establishment of the free trade area and customs union and the single market that the last 60 years have become the longest period of peace, economic growth and prosperity in our continent,” he said.