The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has advised African governments to invest in trade routes between Africa and the Caribbean. She disclosed that there are many trade opportunities that can be harnessed between countries in the Caribbean and Africa.
“If you take between Caribbean and Africa, it is just the Atlantic that separates us. There is so much we can do together, yet there is no air links and no maritime links”, she said at the Leadership Conversation 2025 organised by the University of Gold Coast.
According to her, a direct trade link will increase activities between Africa and the Caribbean, generating millions of dollars that can be used to develop the continent.
“If you take a direct flight from Africa to the Caribbean and part of it, it’s just about 6 hours. In some cases it is just about 5 hours, but there are no flights”, she said.
She observed that the route has become expensive because African governments have not assess its benefit, hence neglected trade opportunities from the Caribbean.
“To access the Caribbean from Africa, you have to go through Europe and the Americas before you get to the Caribbean. In doing so trade is going to be difficult. We need to work on it first as Africans”.
She pointed out for example that there many goods that are in high demand in the Caribbean which are abundant in Africa.
Madam Botchewy emphasized the need for African countries to work collectively under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to expand trade with the Caribbean.
She stressed the need for African governments to invest in transport infrastructure to make the implementation of AfCFTA feasible.
“When I was the Foreign Affairs Minister and we were negotiating the AfCFTA, there was the need for ease of doing business through transportation. We need rails, we need roads, maritime, we need air transport to connect African countries”.
She cautioned that without transport infrastructure it will be difficult to harness the projected benefits from the AfCFTA.
