Kenya and South Africa agreement: A step towards realizing free trade in Africa

President William Ruto and his South African counterpart H.E Cyril Ramaphosa hold bilateral talks at State House, Nairobi on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. [Elly Okware, PCS]

The Bilateral Trade talks held last week between Kenya and South Africa led by presidents William Ruto and Cyril Ramaphosa is a substantial milestone that is in tandem with the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) that was signed in March 2018 at the African Union Summit in Kigali, Rwanda.

Closely following the launch of the Facilitated and Guided Trade Initiative in July 2022 whose aim was to re-invigorate trading under the AfCFTA, the Kenya-South Africa initiative gave an opportunity to captains of industry to showcase their products. Kenya came out strong on tea, avocado and coffee as well as inter-country meat import and export. This was coupled with an opportunity to leverage the industrial expertise of South Africa in the housing industry plugging into Kenya's desire to construct an initial 200,000 housing units in the informal settlements which is a key component of the manifesto of President Ruto's new administration.