Kenya has shipped its first consignment of locally made batteries to Ghana, two months after it was picked among seven countries to pilot the continental free trade area that seeks to unlock the movement of goods and services in Africa.

The Kenyan-made Exide batteries worth Sh9.24 million ($77,000) landed in Ghana last week, marking a formal start of preferential trading under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework.

The consignment by Associated Battery Manufacturing EA Ltd is the clearest indication that Kenya can now access markets in West and Central Africa at preferential rates.

Kenya was picked alongside six other nations to champion the trial phase of the framework designed to reduce tariffs on goods and services as well as eliminate barriers on movement among African countries.

“Associated Battery Manufacturing EA Ltd is the first Kenyan company to start trading under AfCFTA, and the first local company to ever export exide batteries to the Ghanian market” said the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade in a statement.

No trading had occurred since January last year when the AfCFTA was launched as the select countries needed first to identify products that could access the markets.

The delays have been linked to problems regarding rules of origin that remained unresolved, making…