Wamkele Mene

Wamkele Mene is the institutional steward of one of the most ambitious projects in African economic integration — the African Continental Free Trade Area. As Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, he oversees the architecture designed to reduce trade barriers between African countries and create a single continental market. The agreement's relationship with initiatives such as PAPSS makes the connection between policy and payment infrastructure particularly important: trade cannot become borderless if settlement remains fragmented. Mene belongs on the Borderless 100 because he operates at the level where the idea of a borderless Africa becomes law, policy and treaty, not simply technology.