{"id":15784,"date":"2025-11-21T09:13:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/africa-pays-unacceptable-premium-to-trade-within-the-continent\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:53","slug":"africa-pays-unacceptable-premium-to-trade-within-the-continent","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/africa-pays-unacceptable-premium-to-trade-within-the-continent\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa pays \u2018unacceptable\u2019 premium to trade within the continent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking at the annual Chief Albert Luthuli Memorial Lecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday, Okonjo-Iweala said Africa has not fully benefited from the multilateral trading system and remains poorly integrated into global markets.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">An honour to do the Chief Albert Luthuli Memorial Lecture today in Durban, South Africa, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UKZN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@UKZN<\/a>. Chief Albert Luthuli is an icon. The first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his peaceful anti-apartheid activities as leader of the\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Tp2lSV4lOs\">pic.twitter.com\/Tp2lSV4lOs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (@NOIweala) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NOIweala\/status\/1991585174585282935?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>She argued that high trade costs, cumbersome border procedures and inadequate infrastructure continue to obstruct intra-African commerce. Introducing an African visa, she said, would cut the cost of doing business across borders and help boost trade within the continent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must continue the battle. And that\u2019s what makes me wake up every day because we have not benefited enough on the African continent,\u201d she said. \u201cWe cannot allow the ladder that allowed others to climb up to be kicked away just when we are getting ready. We must battle for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Okonjo-Iweala stressed that improving connectivity, harmonising regulations and supporting small businesses will be essential if Africa is to unlock the full benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;SABC\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14125,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-15784","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has warned that African countries are paying an \u201cunacceptable\u201d 20% premium to trade with each other compared to trading with nations outside the continent.","published_date":null,"news_description":"The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has warned that African countries are paying an \u201cunacceptable\u201d 20% premium to trade with each other compared to trading with nations outside the continent.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19877,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15784\/revisions\/19877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}