The Fair was also privileged to host the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, H.E Wamkele Mene, who toured the exhibition and took time to deliberate with the UMA Board. In his welcome remarks, Mr. Deo Kayemba, the UMA Chairman noted the market potential presented by the Africa Continental Free Trade Area estimated at $ 21.9 Billion. He noted that this would be a game changer if issues impeding intra African trade are addressed. Some of the issues pointed out include; financing of SME exports, Air Transport Connectivity within Africa, de-risking of exports and mode of value exchange to facilitate trade.

In his response, the Secretary General lauded UMA for putting together an excellent showcase of Uganda’s manufacturing prowess noting that Uganda was one of the countries poised to benefit greatly from the single market offered by the AfCFTA. Highlighting the nascent Pan African Payment System developed in collaboration with the Afrexim Bank, he urged manufactures to use this platform to address the challenge of the cost of funds conversion as companies transact within Africa.

He noted that in 2019, Africa transacted upto USD 18.5M on the SWIFT payment platform resulting in significant benefits to non- African banks headquartered in London or Europe and that this was serving to hemorrhage much needed funds out of Africa.