African Economic Integration Schemes and Free Movement of Persons

Free movement of persons is one of the mile stones in the regional integration agenda in Africa—both at the continental and regional level. This is reflected in the legal instruments adopted—the 1991 Abuja Treaty, the AfCFTA agreement and the constituting treaties of the RECs. However, the depth and width of attention given to mobility matters in these legal instruments is different. Under the AfCFTA, movement of persons is treated as part of services trade where the State Parties adopted similar approach to the GATS. As the full implementation of the AfCFTA is yet to commence, the specific commitments of the State Parties under the Services protocol is not yet official. It leaves one to wonder on how far the State Parties would go in addressing the criticism they have put forward against skill selectiveness of the GATS. Moreover, it is also puzzling why the State Parties chose to follow the GATS approach and limit the scope of the mobility under the AfCFTA to only service providers while they claim their objective is creating a single market for goods and services facilitated by movement of persons. The adoption of the Protocol on Movement of Persons seems to address this as it aims at the progressive implementation of free movement of persons, right of residence and right of establishment. Its implementation, however, is unlikely as only few countries ratified it. Even when requisite number of ratifications is obtained, one may still question the effectiveness of the system developed under the protocol.