1. Introduction

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement is a metaphor for Africa’s economic integration and development aspirations, which began in 1963 with the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and morphed into the African Union (AU) in 2000. The coming into force of the AfCFTA in 2019 is no doubt a laudable accomplishment by African countries, for various reasons. In particular, the successful implementation of the AfCFTA agreement is expected to address issues of youth unemployment and help actualise Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063, “The Africa We Want”. With regard to global description of the continental initiative, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) reported in 2019 that the AfCFTA agreement was the largest trade agreement to take effect since the establishment of the WTO.

There are assertions that the AfCFTA agreement will benefit African youth immensely by catalysing youth employment in Africa. How this might happen remains a concern of development partners and other relevant stakeholders across state and non-state actors on the continent. Lungu (2019) notes that the AfCFTA, if properly implemented, could boost employment: the resulting regional integration – in the form of regulatory alignment of labour standards and the free movement of people – may help mitigate labour displacements across sectors. However, trade liberalisation will not automatically translate into developmental outcomes (UNECA & WTO, 2019).

Young people occupy a critical place in the political economy of Africa, and the success of many continental initiatives such as the AfCFTA agreement would depend mainly on the extent to which the youth are mainstreamed in the various stages of the implementation of such initiatives. This is largely because Africa is a youthful continent, with youth constituting over 60% of the continent’s population. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2015 reported that Africa accounted for 19% of the world’s total youth population and is projected to account for 42% of the world’s youth population by 2030. Furthermore, Africa’s under-35 population makes up about 75% of the continent’s population (UNESCO, n.d.). One implication of this young population is the potential job creation challenges on the continent, especially as the labour force is projected to reach about one billion by 2030. Against this backdrop, this paper examines how youth involvement in the AfCFTA process could lead to a successful implementation of the continental agreement, which sets out to create more jobs in Africa.