Farai Mabeza
The push to make it easier for businesses and professionals to move across borders is emerging as an important next step in the development of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), following a major business forum held in Harare.
More than 400 exhibitors participated in the COMESA Business Forum and Exhibition at the Harare International Conference Centre from 19 to 21 October, bringing together businesses ranging from micro enterprises to large corporations. The forum came as the COMESA Business Council (CBC) began work on a proposed COMESA Business Visa Scheme aimed at facilitating movement by entrepreneurs and business professionals across the bloc.
The development could prove significant for a regional market of more than 680 million people and an economy valued at approximately US$1 trillion.
CBC Board President Mucai Kunyiha said the organisation was “strengthening our focus on business mobility”, arguing that businesses expanding across borders need their people to be able to move efficiently as well.
That principle goes to the heart of regional integration. Removing tariffs on qualifying goods can create market access, but companies still face practical barriers when establishing operations, attending meetings, negotiating contracts, servicing equipment or developing partnerships across multiple countries.
A business visa could therefore help turn COMESA’s free-trade ambitions into a more integrated commercial space by making it easier for the people behind businesses to operate across borders.
The Harare forum also highlighted the progress already being made. COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe said manufacturers were increasingly sourcing inputs from other member states, while one-stop border posts, electronic certificates of origin and the Simplified Trade Regime were helping businesses trade more formally.
“This is one market in practice,” she said.
But the size of COMESA’s potential market contrasts with relatively low intra-regional trade, currently estimated at about US$14 billion. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, incoming Chair of the COMESA Authority, called for “frank and bold dialogue” to find practical ways of increasing regional production, investment and trade.
The challenge is therefore moving beyond agreements towards deeper industrial integration—particularly in agriculture, energy, critical minerals, manufacturing and services.
The proposed business visa could become one piece of that wider puzzle. Easier movement of business people, combined with reduced trade barriers and improved border procedures, could encourage more regional investment and allow African companies to build supply chains across national boundaries.
That matters beyond COMESA. As a building block of the African Continental Free Trade Area, a more integrated COMESA could provide a practical model for how Africa can move from a collection of national markets towards a genuinely continental market.
