Universities must embed AfCFTA knowledge to ensure rapid implementation – Prof. Faizel

African universities must take the lead in embedding knowledge about the African Continental Free Trade Area amongst current and future policymakers, or risk implementation failure despite political commitment, according to the convenor of the AfCFTA Advisory Council.

Professor Faizel Ismail, Director of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, in a conversation on the AfCFTA podcast asserted that whilst governments have created the policy framework, sustaining implementation over decades requires institutional knowledge embedded in universities across the continent.

“If we want the AfCFTA to really be implemented, we have to embed the technical knowledge and the policy-making capabilities in the institutions of the continent,” Prof Ismail said. He added that “The main institutions that can embed this knowledge are not just current policymakers, but future policymakers and the universities.”

The professor revealed that he has been building a network of leading African universities to conduct joint research, share information, and train students on the complex issues surrounding continental integration.

The emerging network includes Kenya’s Institute for Development Studies, institutions in Senegal including Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Morocco’s Policy Centre for the New South, Cairo’s American University Business School, and multiple policy centres across the continent.

“There’s a lot of work going on now networking between universities, sharing information, conducting joint research on complex issues like critical minerals. We have to understand the profile of the sector, the global context and the changing trends globally.” Prof Ismail explained.

sProf Ismail connected the academic dimension to Africa’s pan-Africanist intellectual tradition, describing his journey from living half his life under apartheid to working in Nelson Mandela’s government after South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.

“This was for me the start of a great dream, the dream of the pan-Africanists, of leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and others who came after him,” he said. “Nelson Mandela was one of those who believed in the unity of the continent. This was the best way to free ourselves from colonialism.”

That dream, he argued, now requires rigorous academic study to become operational reality. Universities must examine how the AfCFTA’s unprecedented protocol on women and youth translates into inclusive growth, how 33 least developed countries navigate market opening, and how 16 landlocked nations overcome geographical constraints.

Prof. Faisel explained that by 2050, Africa will constitute a quarter of the world’s population with the youngest workforce globally, a demographic reality that makes university capacity building particularly strategic.

“The future is yours, and the new technologies can be accessed much more easily by young people,” Prof Ismail told African youth, arguing that proper education and skills development can transform demographic potential into economic strength.

 

 

 

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