Unions call for equitable AfCFTA rollout at Nairobi forum
NAIROBI, Kenya, June 20 – Labour unions from across Africa have urged governments to ensure the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is implemented in a fair, inclusive, and worker-focused manner.
The union leaders who met in Nairobi during a three-day Regional Capacity Development and Political Engagement Forum warned that the free trade pact, if poorly executed, risks replicating the failures of past liberalisation efforts that sidelined workers’ rights and livelihoods.
The forum brought together representatives from the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU-K), the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), and the Labour Research Service.
They have called for urgent reforms to guarantee workers’ involvement in shaping AfCFTA policies and frameworks.
“Workers are central to trade facilitation. They are the wheels of production and distribution in the entire supply chain,” said ITUC-Africa General Secretary Joel Akhator Odigie.
“Therefore, their roles and engagement in ensuring the success of the AfCFTA cannot be over-emphasised, discounted or diminished.”
While praising AfCFTA as a transformative milestone with the potential to boost development, employment, and poverty reduction, the unions warned against unregulated trade practices.
Likewise, they demand stronger labour protections, improved transport and digital infrastructure, and specific safeguards for women in the informal cross-border trade sector.
The unions further urged African governments to embed decent work, social justice, and fair economic gains at the core of AfCFTA’s rollout, insisting that trade must uplift, not undermine, Africa’s working class.
