Eritrea has signed up to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTFA) meaning that all countries on the continent have now agreed to the deal.

The AU says that AfCFTA will create the world's largest free trade area.

It also estimates that implementing AfCFTA will lead to around a 60% boost in intra-African trade by 2022.

The first step is to cut tariffs for goods from countries within the bloc but the timeframe to do this is yet to be announced.

Economic superpower Nigeria signed up earlier this month leaving Eritrea as the only country outside the deal.

Eritrea did not participate in the negotiations leading to the deal because of their conflict with Ethiopia, according to the Commissioner for Trade and Industry of the AU Commission Albert Muchanga

But the situation has changed now that there is peace between the two countries.

The European Union and its free trade agreement took decades to establish. Africa is now hoping it can achieve the same in a fraction of the time.
But with Nigeria pulling out, questions are being raised over just how achievable it really is.

The vision is a free trade deal encompassing 1.2 billion people stretching from Cape Town to Cairo.

Goods, services and perhaps labour, flowing freely in and out of more than 50 African countries.

It could create tens of thousands of jobs and significantly reduce unemployment among the continent's youthful population.

It'll boost trade between African countries and would be instrumental in moving the whole continent away from the narrative of simply being a place where the powerhouse economies of the West and East come to get their raw materials.