NAIROBI, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is striving for the usage of local currencies in trade among countries in the continent, an official said Thursday.
Cross-border trading among countries in the Economic Community of West African States is already happening through the use of local currencies instead of the use of U.S. dollars, said Wamkele Mene, secretary general of the AfCFTA Secretariat, on the sidelines of a trade forum in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
"We now want to expand to other regional blocs including the East African Community which is in talks with the African Export-Import Bank," Mene said.
He said that the cost of currency convertibility due to the use of U.S. dollars in trade among African countries is close to 5 billion dollars annually. "That is expensive and so we have rolled out the pan Africa payment and settlement system that enables trading in local currencies."
