The role of digitalisation in strengthening capacities of Micro, Small and Medium-Size Enterprises (MSMEs in Southern Africa to take advantage of the AfCFTA): ECA Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA) & ECA Digital Centre of Excellence

Abstract

This study on the Role of Digitalisation in Strengthening Capacities of Micro, Small and Medium-size Enterprises (MSMEs) in Southern Africa to take Advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), probes into the network of three critical and connected themes: African MSMEs, Digital Ecosystems and AfCFTA. It lays out an understanding of the state of MSMEs within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and outlines how governments can create the right conditions for smaller enterprises to optimally participate in their respective national digital ecosystems in order to leverage the range of opportunities opening up for full regional and continental integration through AfCFTA. AfCFTA holds great promise as an umbrella for driving the next wave of Africa’s growth. Anchored on the prioritisation of intra-Africa trade, regional collaboration, industrialisation, and economic diversification, the free trade agreement, when successfully implemented, will consolidate the continent’s markets by developing regional and specific value-chains that avail new scalable opportunities to MSMEs and the private sector beyond what they currently have access to, but there is a major concern.