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COMESA
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is a regional economic community in Africa with twenty-one member states stretching from Tunisia to Eswatini. COMESA was formed in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981. Nine of the member states formed a free trade area in 2000 (Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe), with Rwanda and Burundi joining the FTA in 2004, the Comoros and Libya in 2006, Seychelles in 2009, Uganda in 2012 and Tunisia in 2018. COMESA is one of the pillars of the African Economic Community. In 2008, COMESA agreed to an African Free Trade Zone, expanded free-trade zone including members of two other African trade blocs, the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). COMESA is also considering a common visa scheme to boost tourism. Membership Current members Former members Organs According to the treaties, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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African Free Trade Zone
The African Free Trade Zone (AFTZ) is a free trade zone announced at the EAC-SADC-COMESA Summit on 22 October 2008 by the heads of Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC). The African Free Trade Zone is also referred to as the African Free Trade Area in some official documents and press releases. In May 2012 the idea was extended to also include ECOWAS, ECCAS and AMU. In June 2015, at the African Union Summit in South Africa, negotiations were launched to create a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) with all 55 African Union states by 2017. Signing The leaders of the three AFTZ trading blocks, COMESA, EAC, and SADC, announced the agreement, with the aim of creating a single free trade zone to be named the African Free Trade Zone, consisting of 26 countries with a GDP of an estimated US$624bn (£382.9bn). It was hoped that the African Free Trade Zone agreement would ease acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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African Economic Community
The African Economic Community (AEC) is an organization of African Union states establishing grounds for mutual economic development among the majority of African states. The stated goals of the organization include the creation of free trade areas, customs unions, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency (see African Monetary Union) thus establishing an economic and monetary union. Goals The AEC founded through the Abuja Treaty, signed in 1991 and entered into force in 1994 is envisioned to be created in six stages: # (completed in 1999) Creation of regional blocs in regions where such do not yet exist # (completed in 2007) Strengthening of intra-REC integration and inter-REC harmonisation # (completed in 2021) Establishing of a free trade area and customs union in each regional bloc # (to be completed in 2023) Establishing of a continent-wide customs union (and thus also a free trade area) # (to be completed in 2025) Establishing of a continent-wide African ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Chileshe Kapwepwe
Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, is a Zambian accountant and corporate executive, who serves as the Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), effective 18 July 2018. She was elected at the 20th Heads of State COMESA summit in Lusaka, Zambia's capital city. Immediately prior to her current assignment, she was the chairperson of ''Zambia Revenue Authority''. She replaces Sindiso Ngwenya, from Zimbabwe, whose two consecutive terms in office, had expired. Background and education Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe was born in Zambia on 10 July 1958. She has a twin sister, Mulenga Mpundu Kapwepwe, who is an author and co-founder of the Zambian Women's History Museum. Chileshe Kapwepwe holds a Master of Business Administration and is a Chartered Certified Accountant. She is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA) of the United Kingdom, and a Fellow of the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA). Career Kapwepwe is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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East African Community
The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation in East Africa. The EAC's membership consists of eight states: Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Federal Republic of Somalia, the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania. William Ruto, the president of Kenya, is the current EAC chairman. The organisation was founded in 1967, collapsed in 1977, and was revived on 7 July 2000. The main objective of the EAC is to foster regional economic integration. In 2008, after negotiations with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the EAC agreed to an expanded free trade area including the member states of all three organisations. The EAC is an integral part of the African Economic Community. The EAC is a potential precursor to the establishment of the East African Federation, a proposed federation of its members into a single sovereign state. In 2010, the EAC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Trade Bloc
A trade bloc is a type of intergovernmental agreement, often part of a regional intergovernmental organization, where barriers to trade (tariffs and others) are reduced or eliminated among the participating states. Trade blocs can be stand-alone agreements between several states (such as the USMCA) or part of a regional organization (such as the European Union). Depending on the level of economic integration, trade blocs can be classified as preferential trading areas, free-trade areas, customs unions, common markets, or economic and monetary unions. Use Historic trading blocs include the Hanseatic League, a Northern European economic alliance between the 12th and 17th centuries, and the German Customs Union, formed on the basis of the German Confederation and subsequently the German Empire from 1871. Surges of trade bloc formation occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as in the 1990s after the collapse of Communism. By 1997, more than 50% of all world commerce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Eswatini
Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where it shares a border with Mozambique. At no more than north to south and east to west, Eswatini is one of the smallest countries in Africa; despite this, its climate and topography are diverse, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld. The population is composed primarily of Swazi people, ethnic Swazis. The prevalent language is Swazi language, Swazi (''siSwati'' in native form). The Swazis established their kingdom in the mid-18th century under the leadership of Ngwane III. The country and the Swazi take their names from Mswati II, the 19th-century king under whose rule the country was expanded and unified; its boundaries were drawn up in 1881 in the midst of the Scramble for Africa. After the Second Boer War, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Rwanda
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With a comparatively high elevation, Rwanda has been given the sobriquet "land of a thousand hills" (), with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the southeast, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year. It is the most densely populated mainland African country; among countries larger than 10,000 km2, it is the third-most densely populated country in the world. Its Capital city, capital and largest city is Kigali. Hunter-gatherers settled the territory in the Stone Age, Stone and Iron Ages, followed later by Bantu peoples. The population coalesce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the southeast, and South Sudan to the south. Sudan has a population of 50 million people as of 2024 and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres (728,215 square miles), making it Africa's List of African countries by area, third-largest country by area and the third-largest by area in the Arab League. It was the largest country by area in Africa and the Arab League until the 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum, secession of South Sudan in 2011; since then both titles have been held by Algeria. Sudan's capital and most populous city is Khartoum. The area that is now Sudan witnessed the Khormusan ( 40000–16000 BC), Halfan culture ( 20500–17000 BC), Sebilian ( 13000–10000 BC), Qadan culture ( 15000–5000 BC), the war of Jebel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Malawi
Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and has an estimated population of 21,240,689 (as of 2024). Lilongwe is its capital and largest city, while the next three largest cities are Blantyre, Mzuzu, and Zomba, the former capital. The part of Africa now known as Malawi was settled around the 10th century by the Akafula, also known as the Abathwa. Later, the Bantu groups came and drove out the Akafula and formed various kingdoms such as the Maravi and Nkhamanga kingdoms, among others that flourished from the 16th century. In 1891, the area was colonised by the British as the British Central African Protectorate, and it was renamed '' Nyasaland'' in 1907. In 1964, Nyasaland became an independent country as a Commonwealth realm under Prime Minister Hastings Banda, and was rena ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi. Its second-largest and oldest city is Mombasa, a major port city located on Mombasa Island. Other major cities within the country include Kisumu, Nakuru & Eldoret. Going clockwise, Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest (though much of that border includes the disputed Ilemi Triangle), Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Lake Victoria and Uganda to the west. Kenya's geography, climate and population vary widely. In western, rift valley counties, the landscape includes cold, snow-capped mountaintops (such as Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Southern Africa Development Community
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Goals The SADC's goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 16 countries in southern Africa. Although its primary objectives are development, economic growth, and poverty alleviation, peacekeeping has become increasingly important to the SADC. History The origins of SADC are in the 1960s and 1970s, when the leaders of majority-ruled countries and national liberation movements coordinated their political, diplomatic and military struggles to bring an end to colonial and white-minority rule in southern Africa. The immediate forerunner of the political and security cooperation leg of today's SADC was the informal Frontline States (FLS) grouping. It was formed in 1980. The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) was the forerunner of the socio-economic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |