Kenya has entered into agreement with three other African states to speed up stalled talks aimed at boosting internal trade within the continent.
The country’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Dr Amina Mohamed on Saturday signed the agreement together with South Africa’s Dr Rob Davis, Nigeria’s Dr Okechukwu Enelamah and Egypt’s Amb Amgad Ghaffar.
The quartet used the ongoing Tokyo International Conference for African Development (Ticad) to restart the dialogue on the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) which was President Uhuru Kenyatta’s proposal at the African Union summit meeting held in Kigali earlier this year.
CFTA intends to among other things promote intra-African trade which currently lies at a low rate of 12 per cent and bring together all the African states with a Gross Domestic Product of Sh250 trillion.
"The four countries represent the four economic blocks. Also, they are the most active countries in the discussions on CFTA hence the importance of them spearheading the talks," said Director of Economic Affairs at Foreign Affairs Ministry Amb Nelson Ndirangu.
The country has recently been entering into trade deals with a number of states and is expected to receive an economic blossom before 2020.