The Pan-African Investment Code (PAIC), as the first African model investment treaty, has received harsh criticism from investment experts who have labelled the instrument as 'too protectionist'. African experts drafted the PAIC to promote sustainable development by including non-traditional and ground-breaking features that concern Africa, making the model treaty a unique legal instrument. Those who criticise the PAIC for its protectionist approach towards investment and investors' rights and responsibilities assert that the PAIC is incompatible with sustainable development. This paper argues that the PAIC, as a non-traditional instrument, is a powerful guiding source that can be used to promote sustainable development within Africa and the rest of the world. The paper further argues that the PAIC should be used to negotiate the investment protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Area' AfCFTA' because the PAIC embraces modern views that are tailored for the needs of Africa, and it stresses the need to promote sustainable development, State-police-power to regulate for health safety, and good governance of investment laws within the continent. The PAIC endorses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which makes the PAIC well situated to be used to negotiate the investment protocol of the AfCFTA because it removes the asymmetrical relationship between intra-African and extra-African investors and host-States in Africa.