Accelerating the African continental free trade area through optimization of digital supply chains

Abstract

Abstract The integration of e‐commerce into supply chain management (SCM) and logistics operations has greatly impacted the way these processes are executed. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has disrupted traditional SCM and logistics business processes, making digitalization a crucial element for differentiation and competitiveness. The objective of this article was to investigate how the adoption of appropriate digital technologies could accelerate intra‐African trade in goods and services through the AfCFTA Agreement. The author employed a content analysis of the primary source documents, specifically the Protocol on Trade in Goods, available on the AfCFTA's website. The nine Annexes of the Protocol on Trade in Goods were evaluated against a digital supply chain (DSC) model adopted in this article. The results of the analysis showed that the supply chain and logistics processes of the AfCFTA's Protocol on Trade in Goods could be effectively identified and mapped to potential digital technologies through the adopted DSC framework. The practical implications of this study suggest that the AfCFTA could adopt a DSC framework as a guide in concluding negotiations on the Protocol on Digital Trade to harness the benefits of digital technologies. As the main contribution, this article provides a DSC framework that could be utilized to accelerate intra‐African trade through optimization of supply chain and logistics processes of the AfCFTA.

Keywords

• 4IR
• AfCFTA
• digital supply chain
• digital transformation
• industry 4.0
• supply chain management