The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent. It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organization of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the AU are;

• To promote the unity and solidarity of the African States;
• To coordinate and intensify their cooperation and efforts to achieve a better life for the peoples of Africa;
• To defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity and independence;
• To eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa; and
• To promote international cooperation, having due regard to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Rwanda joined the African Union on 25^th May 1963 and has been an active member since. H.E. President Paul Kagame is among the very few sought out Presidents on many continental matters including;

• Chairing the AU in 2018-2019, which advanced a number of continental projects such as; the Adoption and signing of the AfCFTA, launching of the Single African Air Transport Markets, Adoption of the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons and goods & African Passport, Establishment of the AUDA/NEPAD as a Development Agency and more. 

• H.E. President Paul Kagame is the current Chair of the AUDA/NEPAD (2020-2022).
• H.E. President Paul Kagame was appointed the leader of the AU Domestic Health Financing Initiative in Feb 2019 through the African Leadership Meeting (ALM) on Health. This is an initiative to mobilize African stakeholders especially governments to invest more in health services before reaching out for support.
• From 2016 to date, H.E. President Paul Kagame has been leading the AU Institutional Reform.

AfCFTA

The AfCFTA brings together all 55 member states of the African Union covering a market of more than 1.2 billion people. The main objectives of the AfCFTA are to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments, and thus pave the way for accelerating the establishment of the Customs Union. It will also expand intra-African trade through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization and facilitation and instruments across the RECs and across Africa in general. The AfCFTA is also expected to enhance competitiveness at the industry and enterprise level through exploitation of opportunities for scale production, continental market access and better reallocation of resources.

The trading phase under the AfCFTA, signed by 54 of the 55 countries in Africa, begun on January 1, 2021.