The AfCFTA business forum has just ended and it assembled some of the most accomplished and pathbreaking businessmen and women on the continent.

Speaking on the panel of logistics, the CEO of the McDan Group, Dr Daniel McKorley challenged successful African entrepreneurs to pull together to create continental mega-companies to rival global conglomerates.

He lamented that for a continent with a combined GDP of $3.3T and the fastest growing economies, no African corporation is large enough to compete with the established entities of the world in the areas of transport and logistics and other businesses.

Dr Mckorley stressed that the McDan group has demonstrated its commitment to helping drive the AfCFTA agenda and its adoption of working memoranda and other ongoing interventions to promote seamless trade on the continent are just examples of how companies on the continent can come to the table.

He further stressed that the potential outturn of AfCFTA is promising for all big players involved and accordingly, there is no need for unproductive competitive behavior between African players hence his call for joint venture partnership initiatives to shore up capacity to deliver under AfCFTA.

The conference gathered a wide variety of business actors and stakeholders including policymakers, government officials, regulatory agencies, business leaders, consulting experts, and academics and the event was held in Cape Town, South Africa.