[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

Awesome weekend to all. Kindly research AfCFTA and follow-up with individual country trade ministries and regional trade regimes as well as relevant industry stakeholders (industrialists, economists, and policy-makers) from trade, agriculture, creative economy, tech education, health, travel, intellectual property, rules of origin, outsourced-work, to name a few.

Thanks so much for participating, please be engaged, research, dialogue, and be an active participant in demanding, co-creating, and taking the economic opportunities of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement and the many ongoing ratifications at the WHO (global) to local community levels by you! #AfricaWeWant #YesWeCan

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

I am super excited about this needed conversation and knowledge-share. AfCFTA is one of the tools for us, Africa’s youth, to be economically empowered in actualizing #TheAfricaWeWant.

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

Thanks for your question @ Apio, yes it is incredibly relevant for creatives to find our place in local and international economies/communities. The initial rounds of negotiations however are trade-heavy so think non-barriers to trade, tariffs, harmonizing trade between countries that have ratified, and adopting new trade regimes (WHO also plays a key role in this so having a Diretor General from Nigeria is a positive indicator). However for creatives, there have to be negotiations on IP protection, competition among others to protect, reward and commercialize scaled creative output on the global stage for Africans. A good website to follow on updates is the Africa Trade Observatory: https://ato.africa

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

Great question @ James Kato. The AfCFTA is a relevant first step for a single market that should lead to economic empowerment by (simply put) boosting intra-trade within African countries and external global trade from Africa beyond the less than 15% the entire continent contributes. A United Africa also has a political unification element to it. So there is definitely more work to be done by all of us: our leaders, our youth our community, our regional and national representatives!

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

Whew @Gloria this is my very last response. Thanks for the interest.

I share quite extensively the latest projects, consultancies, and engagement with “big tech” local tech, academic institutions from Harvard Business School to African Leadership University in Mauritius to Wits and Stellenbosch Business Schools in South Africa here: https://unpackingafrica.substack.com/

I cover all the questions you asked in Unpacking Africa entrepreneurship in highlighting them, interviewing and spotlighting them via my podcast, and showcasing collaboration on the continent with the various working environment in different countries on the African continent and with Africa’s diaspora.

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

@AfricaYouth please read the report, it responds to your follow-up question beautifully and in summarized and technical-economic details. Over the last year after adoption ratification in January 2021, there are many insightful and contextualized industry and country-specific policy proposals (and policy directives) to help you further.

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

It’s early days yet, H.E. Wamkele Mena is acting really driving AfCFTA, the other/flip side of a continent-wide policy is the many stakeholders in collaboration with the secretariat to make AfCFTA work. It is a challenging job during a challenging time, I don’t think you need positional leadership to contribute to knowledge-share, engagement, and advocacy that leads to meaningful collaboration. I would like to admit that I’m already doing all of these with the limited resources at my disposal.

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

@AfricanYouth
Hello brotherly, thanks for following and joining Muwado through social media to engage with us on here. Great question, so AfCFTA being lauded as a “game-changer” by older generation policy leaders, economists, and industrialists because of the opportunity to recalibrate trade beneficiaries both intra-regionally on the continent and on the global world trade stage.

There has been a report that sheds light on opportunities for women and youth (usually classified together) here: https://au.int/en/documents/20201202/making-afcta-work-women-and-youth the thinking though is from a production capacity stand-point because the assumption (and reality) is that women and youth aren’t in the investment asset class to really enjoy the local industry wins based on ownership.

In sum, what AfCFTA looks like for us young people is a window of opportunity for us to be audacious in our entrepreneurial ventures, to be bold in establishing businesses that potentially serve 35+ ratified countries with sourced talent that are not bound by geography and shared incentives beyond local challenges for all our creative manufacturing, hand-made and crafts as well as digital economy innovative products and services. Africa is our oyster and we must engage, enjoy and beneficiate from it with the audacity of our peers in the USA, Europe, and Asia. I’m leading in the best way I know how, here: https://www.eagamor.com/maps

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

Thanks for this, my personal podcast journey started with Unpacking Africa (https://www.africapodcastfestival.com), with many in my network asking about my tools, tips, and tricks on creating content during the pandemic and that’s how the Podcast Unite Network of 50+ African podcasters from 10+ countries. Google x PrX reach out to join their board and it has been a privilege engaging with and advising podcasters of color from across the world.

In terms of festivals, we collaborate with the Africa Podcasters Festivals (https://www.africapodcastfestival.com) with digitally hosted podcast festivals in 2020 and 2021 to accommodate for social distancing and engaging a pan-African and diasporan audience.

KukuZa is focused on using podcasting as a project-based learning opportunity for young Africans to join in digital creation and curation in their own language, from their own communities, and in their own perspective. We are looking to host one 4th quarter of this year and when Covid-19 remedies are in place, to community and campus activations in 2022 and beyond.

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

Thanks @Gloria I am incredibly passionate about what I do and gratefully I have consistently and painstakingly built skillset in prioritization, execution and driving initiatives from ideation to execution.

Growing up with entrepreneurial parents means that I was raised thinking of all the ways I may use my skillset for both gainful employment and community advocacy. As I have grown older, however I am also mastering the process of giving myself grace when things don’t work out immediately and taking time to also rest and have healthy experiences that recharge my body, mind and soul.

I am blessed to know what I enjoy, what I’m good at and focused in delivering the best I can on all of these.

I am always directly or indirectly working with global tech giants in Africa; see my work with Facebook and the communication certification program here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/certified-emmanuel-gamor

I have colleagues and friends in most of these companies and with the new HQ establishment of Twitter, it is an exciting time because they present resources, strategy and support that our local governments and business-leaders will/cannot give in ecosystem development.

I left Google and the Ghana YouTube team during the height of “Dumsor” (electricity power outages) in the country and it made it near impossible to meet internal KPIs for online platform use, when most in the country needed to figure out electricity rationing for every-day living.

With good contextualized strategy, inclusive implementation and local hires in funding deployment and execution, global companies’ resources may be used as a force for good.

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

Thank you so much for the compliment. My mom and I share similar smiles.

Technically the Africa passport is launched and accessible to leaders, I speak about what access to intercontinental travel for all Africans means here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPVNfMHzsEo but not widely distributed due to country lockdown and travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.

The priority now is to have healthy Africans economically empowered to live full lives. In post-Covid travel there may be additional requirements (Covid-vaccination cards) among other things, to facilitate cross-border, intra-Africa, and global travel.

We have to wait and see.

[Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor]

Great observation @Byagaba Roland, it is an important question. The lowest barrier to entry for young people in my opinion, is the Creative Manufacturing and hand-made sector/industry. I share a report by MasterCard x We The People on how we are already creative and artisans and with some business development and enterprise support we can engage young people in the Global Digital Economies and help them scale from artisans to Medium-Large creative businessmen and women. I share my theory of change to address this here: http://www.eagamor.com/eliugift

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