Africa’s bridge to a thriving private sector, investor confidence and trade integration

Africa is at a crossroad! On one side lies the observed challenge with markets, legal systems, and infrastructure. On the other side, lies the promise of a unified, prosperous, and self-reliant continent, where businesses thrive, jobs are created, local industries flourish and residents live in peace. 

Is the Private Sector Bill of Rights (PSBoR) our bridge over Africa’s crossroad? 

The PSBoR, known as the Charter on Private Sector Development, Rights, and Protection Environment for an Enabling Business Environment in Africa [a.k.a. Private Sector Bill of Rights (PSBoR) for Enabling Business Environment in Africa], is a tool that is being promoted as an accompanying instrument for the successful implementation of some of Africa’s key continental transformation frameworks, serving as an enabler for creating a more integrated African market. 

At its core, the PSBoR is a research based collaboratively curated tool that is designed to support Africa’s transformation via engaged and thriving private sector. It aligns seamlessly with the protocols and principles of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For instance, the PSBoR aligns with the AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Goods; AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Services; SDGs 1, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 16, & 17; AU Agenda 2063 Aspiration 3; ; AU CESA 16-25; FIRIA Transition Strategy; AfCFTA Competition Protocol; The East African Community Competition Act, 2006; COMESA Competition Commission; AfCFTA NTB Elimination Mechanism; AfCFTA Green Protocol; AU Energy Transition Plan, and the AfCFTA Industrial Policy Framework. The PSBoR further provides a mechanism and an extension of the criteria for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to measure African States’ commitments and political integration aspects, among others. 

Most importantly, the 24 rights in the PSBoR promise to place African enterprises—large, medium and small—at the heart of Africa’s development model and also encourages the private sector to undertake integration of ESG [Environment, Social and Governance] principles into its governance. With the PSBoR’s 24 rights serving as a negotiation tool with the private sector in African jurisdictions, the full spectrum of the continent’s private sector can become active participants in Africa’s aspired transformation to an equitable future for Africa’s vibrant young population. The PSBoR is enabling to the faster emergence of the Africa they want, as a more predictable investment environment with endless opportunities! 

What now remains is action. Let us practicalise Ubuntu to shape Africa’s futrue. Governments need to domesticate the PSBoR principles, RECs need to harmonize policies for more effective regional integration, and the African Union should consider institutionalizing the PSBoR as a valuable companion to AfCFTA and Agenda2053 implementation. The African private sector, academia, and civil society need to collectively push for the adoption, implementation, and monitoring of these initiatives.