"Africa is a continent of 54 countries, nearly 1.5 billion people, and an extraordinary diversity of resources, industries, and cultures [...]. We are really supposed to, shall we say, become independent as Africa, because the environment is forcing us to seriously reconsider the abilities that we have, the resources that we have. And for that reason, I think it is a very good point in time [...]. The AfCFTA poses a real opportunity for [African] countries to make the best of these dynamic, uncertain times. And so maybe the first point to consider is that the AfCFTA as a concept has been signed up to by 54 of the 55 states. So that's already a good starting point to say [...] the leadership in Africa realized that we need to work together and there's a lot of political buy-in. I think it happens to be well-timed, but it wasn't designed that way. It was just a natural progression and all of these other things happening," Dr. Cameron said.