AfCFTA risks failure without labor protections, union leader warns
News Ghana, 4 October 2025
AfCFTA risks failure without labor protections, union leader warns
The African Continental Free Trade Area’s (AfCFTA) promise of transformative economic integration could remain unfulfilled unless governments design industrial policies that prioritize workers’ welfare alongside trade liberalization, according to a prominent labor economist.
Dr. Hod Anyigba, Executive Director and Chief Economist of the International Trade Union Confederation–Africa (ITUC-Africa), argues that trade agreements divorced from labor protection and social justice frameworks risk creating uneven benefits that undermine the continent’s development objectives.
“Trade agreements cannot succeed in isolation from the people who drive production,” Anyigba explained in an interview. “Without worker-centered industrial policies, AfCFTA risks becoming a market for goods, not a platform for inclusive growth.”
The concern is shared by other labor organizations: Kenya’s Central Organization of Trade Unions recently reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring AfCFTA serves as a catalyst for inclusive economic growth, industrialization, and job creation rather than corporate expansion at workers’ expense, declaring “There is no trade without workers”.
Anyigba noted that many African economies currently pursue industrialization strategies prioritizing capital and investment inflows over employment quality. “We must shift from measuring success by GDP growth alone to measuring how trade improves living standards and working conditions,” he said.
The informal sector represents a particularly acute challenge. Accounting for over 80 percent of Africa’s workforce, informal traders and small-scale manufacturers remain largely excluded from AfCFTA discussions despite their centrality to cross-border commerce.
“AfCFTA must not become an elite business club,” Anyigba warned. “If we fail to formalize and support informal traders and small manufacturers, we’ll have a continental trade area that benefits few and marginalizes many.”
In earlier remarks, Anyigba stressed that “trade must serve people, not just profits,” calling for stronger labor protections and corporate accountability. His position reflects growing concern among labor advocates that AfCFTA’s implementation has prioritized tariff reduction and trade facilitation while giving insufficient attention to employment conditions and worker rights.
He called on member states to integrate decent work principles into national AfCFTA strategies, including policies guaranteeing social protection, occupational safety, and skills upgrading for workers in industrial value chains. “Industrialization should create stable, decent jobs—not precarious employment,” Anyigba stressed. “We must ensure the trade regime promotes fair wages, gender equality, and the right to collective bargaining.”
The economist emphasized the importance of robust social dialogue between governments, employers, and trade unions to ensure fair distribution of AfCFTA gains. He has previously stated that Just Transition realization requires adopting a social dialogue approach that embraces society’s attitude as a whole.
“Social dialogue is not a luxury; it’s the foundation of inclusive trade governance,” he said. Without it, Anyigba warned that ignoring labor dynamics could undermine AfCFTA’s sustainability, as growing inequality and poor working conditions fuel social unrest and erode trust in the integration process.
Anyigba, whose organization represents 17 million members across Africa, recently commented on trade uncertainty, noting that while existing agreements like AGOA are “the breadbasket of many people in very critical sectors,” they’re “not the only way to prosperity”—suggesting labor advocates see AfCFTA as an opportunity to establish more balanced trade frameworks.
The challenge is partly structural. AfCFTA emerged from government and business negotiations with limited formal labor representation in core decision-making. Integrating worker protections now requires retrofitting labor provisions into frameworks designed primarily around tariff schedules and regulatory harmonization a complex undertaking given the 54 participating countries’ diverse economic structures and labor market conditions.
Whether member states will embrace worker-centric industrial policies remains uncertain. Governments face competing pressures: attracting investment often means emphasizing business-friendly environments, while labor protections can be portrayed as barriers to competitiveness. How countries navigate that tension will largely determine whether AfCFTA delivers on its inclusive development promises or simply accelerates existing patterns of unequal growth.
“The success of AfCFTA must be measured by the quality of jobs it creates, not just the volume of goods traded,” Anyigba concluded. “Trade must work for people, not just profits.”
