ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Friday urged African media practitioners to play critical role towards the successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement by shaping the public opinion on Africa's integration and free trade narrative.
The call was made by Adeyinka Adeyemi, Senior Programme Officer at the ECA, as he emphasized the critical role of the media towards the effective realization of the major aspirations of the continental free trade deal towards Africa's overall transformation.
"The media creates and shapes public opinion by translating complex technical issues like the AfCFTA into stories accessible to the public," Adeyemi said.
"The media has an important responsibility to unpack Africa's free trade story and actively engage the public on the integration agenda and we, as the ECA, need to support them with our technical data and insights," Adeyemi added.
According to the ECA, the role of business and economics journalism in promoting the successful implementation of the AfCFTA include understanding the African economy, reporting trade and other economic indicators, finding new local angles to reporting African trade as well as reporting trade data.
Mercy Wambui, Chief Communications Officer at the ECA, also stressed that implementing the AfCFTA "will have very tangible impacts on the daily lives of Africa's population, which is expected to grow from 1.3 billion in 2020 to 2.75 billion by 2060."
"It will require a proactive and inclusive process to keep all stakeholders informed and engaged at the local, national, regional and international level to make sure the free trade area really delivers for all Africans," Wambui said.
"African media can help the public better understand the opportunities as well as the challenges involved in the implementation of the AfCFTA," the ECA said,
The ECA also called on African media practitioners to make trade reporting "more humanized by integrating trade themes into other major news stories and developing new frames for telling trade stories to unpack Africa's Free Trade Story."
"This helps a variety of stakeholders better understand how the AfCFTA can practically grow intra-African trade, enhance competitiveness and ensure a better reallocation of resources in a way that practically impacts their own lives," the ECA said.
