Last January 18, in Yaoundé, Minister of Commerce (Mincommerce) MBARGA ATANGANA Luc Magloire officially launched the first edition of the economic exhibition called "African Business Week". Under the theme "Synergy of African know-how to serve the African Continental Free Trade Area," the business meeting is attended by "500 small producers from Central and West African States: Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, DRC, Côte d'Ivoire," explains a statement from the Ministry of Commerce.

The aim of that economic exhibition, held at the National Museum from January 15 to 30, is to help small producers integrate and capitalize on the continental free trade area (AfCFTA), the second-largest market in the world after the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in Asia.

According to Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, the coronavirus pandemic revealed that it is an “economic suicide” to continue to depend on others.  "We must act. We need a paradigm shift. It is here. It is now. African Business Week should not be a mere leisure space, an opportunity to drink, merry, and show-off. It should be an opportunity for reflection, action, and projection into the future that is onto us,” he said. 

"We aim to pool the skills and resources available to contribute to the emergence of a new inclusive and competitive pole of trade and economic development in Africa, in line with the AfCFTA development indicators," he concluded. 

L.A.