Kenya loses bid to host the African Continental Free Trade Area secretariat despite its efforts to offer free office space and cater for any other expenses during the meeting.
Due to the need for regional balance, the meeting is set to take in the West Africa nation of Ghana. This was because the African Union offices are in Ethiopia.
However, the committee applauded Kenya, citing that it has made tremendous improvements on its amenities and ability to have successfully held various major global meetings in the past.
Other countries which had shown interest to host this important event included Ethiopia, Egypt, Madagascar, Senegal, and the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).
Some of the services that Kenyan government had promised to offer to the AU secretariat include accommodating him in prime locations and giving him diplomatic treatments from staff workers.
The AU secretariat will have the mandate to coordinating and implementing an agreement by member states in which already 52 African Countries have signed to a deal of having a single market.
The creation of a trading bloc will see the African trade barriers be eliminated via the Free Trade Area agreement of which Kenya has been on the forefront to ratify.
The President of Ghana Nana Akufo has pledged to donate 1billion Ghanaian cedi to aid the secretariats’ operations and activities during the meeting.
