Since officially joining the Zlecaf guided trade program in December 2023, Algeria has been stepping up initiatives to intensify intra-African trade.

Algeria would like to set up a free trade zone with 5 African countries this year: Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, Mali and Niger. This is the project unveiled by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who announced at the 41st meeting of the NEPAD Steering Committee of Heads of State and Government that implementation of the plan will begin with Mauritania and extend to the other target countries.

For the Algerian head of state, this is an instrument that will stimulate the rapid realization of "the objectives of economic development and continental integration". This should materialize through the creation of appropriate infrastructures via Public/Private Partnerships, and the improvement of regional industrial production and trade networks.

Algeria is involved in a number of road, rail and transnational projects with neighboring countries, including those covered by the free zone.

"Among other things, Algeria has launched the Trans-Saharan Fiber Optic Dorsal project to develop the regional digital economy in the Sahel, as well as the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, which transports gas from Nigeria to Europe via Algeria, and the project to develop the rail transport network throughout the national territory, which could be extended to neighboring countries, following the vision of the Trans-Saharan Road," said the President.

According to the African Development Bank (ADB), the 9,400 km Trans-Saharan Highway, which will interconnect 6 countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, Niger, Chad and Nigeria), is currently being finalized.

Apart from the northern countries, with which trade relations are at an acceptable level, it should be pointed out that security problems in Mali and Niger have somewhat hampered Algeria's drive to gain easier access to the West African market for its intra-African trade objectives.

To get around this obstacle, the country is seeking to redirect its strategies by focusing its regional projects on Mauritania, which opens onto Senegal via the eponymous river in the commune of Rosso.

Henoc Dossa