AfCFTA Implementation & Trade Readiness is an independent PHC Public Interest project established to monitor the gap between the African Continental Free Trade Area’s legal and policy framework and its practical commercial usability.
The project will maintain evidence concerning the conditions that determine whether businesses can actually make use of AfCFTA across specific countries, sectors, products and trade corridors.
Rather than treating AfCFTA as a single continent-wide condition that is either “ready” or “not ready”, the project will examine the practical factors that determine usability, including tariff schedules, Guided Trade Initiative participation, rules of origin, services offers, customs and documentation processes, national implementation structures, payment systems, domestic regulation, infrastructure and business awareness.
PHC will use Concerns, evidence, actions, proposals and periodic assessments to maintain a continuously updated picture of implementation progress, obstacles and opportunities.
📄 The Story of PHC 📄 Africa's Free Trade Zone Has a Filing Cabinet Problem:This proposal offers the Project Health Control (PHC) Service for the AfCFTA Implementation & Trade Readiness project.
AfCFTA readiness is not a single document or launch event. It depends on many moving parts being made practical: stakeholder alignment, policy interpretation, market preparation, trader support, logistics and customs interfaces, digital records, training, communications, funding confidence and follow-through on decisions. Without a maintained control structure, useful activity can become fragmented across meetings, reports, spreadsheets, correspondence and individual memory.
PHC provides a disciplined way to hold that activity together. It gives the project a live evidence base for Schedule, Concerns, Actions, Locations, People, Events and Deliverables, so leadership and partners can see what is known, what is blocked, what has changed, and what needs attention next.
The AfCFTA Implementation & Trade Readiness project is intended to support practical preparation for increased intra-African trade participation. It focuses on the operational conditions that allow policy intent to become usable delivery: informed stakeholders, clear workstreams, credible records, coordinated actions, visible risks and evidence that can support funding, assurance and scale-up decisions.
The project may involve a wide mix of public, private, civic and community-facing participants. Each group may have different expectations, constraints and definitions of success. PHC is proposed as the project-health control method for keeping these moving parts connected and for making progress visible without over-centralising ownership or obscuring local responsibility.
The proposal covers the PHC Service only. It supports implementation readiness, reporting discipline and evidence management; it does not provide trade-law advice, customs rulings, market-entry guarantees, finance guarantees or direct replacement of existing institutional mandates.
The precise parties would be confirmed during mobilisation, but the PHC Service is expected to operate across a broad implementation environment. Likely interfaces include:
The project will be supported through the standard three-phase Project Health Control deployment model. Each phase is designed to increase clarity, reduce delivery ambiguity and build a maintained evidence base for fundable, accountable trade-readiness work.
The operating principle is simple: PHC should make the project easier to govern, easier to explain and easier to fund by keeping evidence close to the work and by making unresolved matters visible early.
Timeline: 1 week
Focus: Confirm whether the project has enough clarity, stakeholder access and practical readiness to justify structured mobilisation.
Activities:
Timeline: 2 months
Focus: Put the PHC operating structure in place so the AfCFTA readiness work can be tracked, reviewed and reported consistently.
Activities:
Timeline: 3 months, renewable by agreement
Focus: Maintain project-health visibility as implementation activity develops across stakeholders, locations and workstreams.
Activities:
The expected outcomes of applying the PHC Service to the AfCFTA Implementation & Trade Readiness project include:
| Category | Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 | Month 4 | Month 5 | Month 6 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People - 7-Day Review | 3,042 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3,042 |
| People - Setup | 0 | 11,605 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11,605 |
| People - Continuation | 0 | 0 | 11,605 | 12,049 | 12,049 | 0 | 35,703 |
| People - Maintenance | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,049 | 12,049 |
| Hardware | 0 | 0 | 1,442 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,442 |
| IT Services and Tooling | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,901 | 0 | 0 | 1,901 |
| Miscellaneous | 0 | 1,002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,002 |
| TOTAL | 3,042 | 12,607 | 13,047 | 13,950 | 12,049 | 12,049 | 66,744 |
| PHC Profit | 790 | 3,014 | 3,014 | 3,130 | 3,130 | 3,130 | 16,208 |
| Agency Markup | 277 | 1,055 | 1,055 | 1,095 | 1,095 | 1,095 | 5,672 |
| Category | Description | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Single Board Computer Set x5 x5 | Raspberry Pi 500, Mouse, hdmi cable, power cable | £722 |
| Monitor x5 x5 | Mini-Monitor (for RP500) | £480 |
| Site UPS x1 | Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for site computers. | £240 |
| £1,442 |
| Role | People | Hourly Rate | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | Total (GBP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] PHC Strategist | David Winter | £138.60 | 10 £1,386 (£900) | 8 £1,109 (£720) | 8 £1,109 (£720) | 8 £1,109 (£720) | 8 £1,109 (£720) | 8 £1,109 (£720) | 50 £6,930 (£4,500) |
| [2] PHC Analyst | Abubakr Harakat | £92.40 | 5 £462 (£300) | 16 £1,478 (£960) | 16 £1,478 (£960) | 16 £1,478 (£960) | 16 £1,478 (£960) | 16 £1,478 (£960) | 85 £7,854 (£5,100) |
| [3] PHC Admin | PHC Admin | £53.90 | 5 £270 (£175) | 24 £1,294 (£840) | 24 £1,294 (£840) | 24 £1,294 (£840) | 24 £1,294 (£840) | 24 £1,294 (£840) | 125 £6,738 (£4,375) |
| [4] PHC Trainee | [name 2] | £18.48 | 0 | 10 £185 (£120) | 10 £185 (£120) | 10 £185 (£120) | 10 £185 (£120) | 10 £185 (£120) | 50 £924 (£600) |
| [4] PHC Trainee | [name1] | £18.48 | 0 | 48 £887 (£576) | 48 £887 (£576) | 72 £1,331 (£864) | 72 £1,331 (£864) | 72 £1,331 (£864) | 312 £5,766 (£3,744) |
| [5] Project Staff | Salefu Ngbede | £92.40 | 10 £924 (£600) | 72 £6,653 (£4,320) | 72 £6,653 (£4,320) | 72 £6,653 (£4,320) | 72 £6,653 (£4,320) | 72 £6,653 (£4,320) | 370 £34,188 (£22,200) |
| PHC Provider Markup | £790 | £3,014 | £3,014 | £3,130 | £3,130 | £3,130 | £16,208 | ||
| Agent Markup | £277 | £1,055 | £1,055 | £1,095 | £1,095 | £1,095 | £5,673 | ||
| Total | 30 £3,042 (£1,975) | 178 £11,605 (£7,536) | 178 £11,605 (£7,536) | 202 £12,049 (£7,824) | 202 £12,049 (£7,824) | 202 £12,049 (£7,824) |
992 hrs £62,399 (£40,519) |
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