To promote the free trade area in Africa, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat kicked off AfCFTA Hub which is a platform that connects clearing houses for national governments, intergovernmental, private, and public digital and partnership platforms. The hub is designed to grow into a single, trusted directory of the services needed to navigate the AfCFTA for small players and hence developing the AfCFTA into an inclusive Free Trade Area in the world.  Kenya is among the seven countries that have been selected to start trading under the AfCFTA framework in a pilot phase to test the environmental, legal, and trade policy basis for intra-African trade. Other African countries like Zambia, Namibia, Malawi, and Ghana are in advanced implementation stages of both the AfCFTA guided pilot and AfCFTA Hub platform implementation. 'It is important to ensure the centrality of SMEs, startups and female entrepreneurs as we strive to build the world's most inclusive, most innovative and most integrated Single Market,' said AfCFTA Secretary General Wamkele Mene.