The economic play with the AfCFTA INTRA-is simple: African countries  look inward and make it easier to trade with each other by removing current barriers to increased trade on the continent, such as current high tariffs. Having access to a larger market of around 1.2 billion people will potentially trigger industrialization and manufacturing across the continent and, in turn, create vast employment opportunities on a continent home to the world’s fastest-growing labor force. If signatory countries follow through with policies that spur local productivity, the free trade argument could boost intra-African trade by 52%  by 2022, estimates the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).