For decades, Africa traded more with the rest of the world than with itself. Today, the African Continental Free Trade Area seeks to change this dynamic. Financing, logistics corridors, digital payment systems, and industrialisation: African institutions and states are accelerating the implementation of the world’s largest single market. But on the ground, challenges remain immense.
Congested roads, slow customs procedures, and some of the highest logistics costs in the world , these long-standing obstacles have hindered trade between African countries for years. Today, the AfCFTA aims to reverse this trend. The objective is to enable African economies to trade more with one another, reduce dependence on external imports, and develop regional value chains. According to several African institutions, intra-African trade could exceed 230 billion dollars in the coming years, driven by the acceleration of the continental agreement.
“Under the AFCFTA, we are creating a single market. We are not focusing on competition, but it’s a collaboration that the spirit of collaboration is what we are trying to facilitate through regional or continental value chains. So the credit fund will actually provide support to get into these key value chains.”
GAINMORE ZANAMWE, Director Trade Facilitation and Investment Promotion, Afreximbank – Zimbabwe
To support this transformation, Afreximbank is deploying several financial and logistical instruments. The pan-African development bank says it has mobilised tens of billions of dollars to support intra-African trade, regional infrastructure, and industrial investment. Among its priorities are the modernisation of trade corridors, the reduction of border delays, and the implementation of African payment systems in local currencies. Initiatives such as PAPSS, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, are designed to significantly reduce cross-border transaction costs.
“We actually realized that when countries are going to embark on removing tariffs, tariff liberalization, some of them may lose revenue. So we actually set up a 10 billion AFCFTA adjustment fund, and Afreximbank has already contributed one billion United States dollars to that, and we’ve also put a seed grant of about 10 million that will anchor what we call the base fund that will deal with the tariff revenue compensation. ”
GAINMORE ZANAMWE, Director Trade Facilitation and Investment Promotion, Afreximbank – Zimbabwe
Another major issue is the industrialisation of the continent. The AfCFTA is not only about increasing trade flows; it also aims to transform Africa’s raw materials locally. Automotive, agro-processing, textiles, cultural industries, and mineral beneficiation: several sectors have been identified as strategic to generate more value addition on the continent. Major African economic events, such as the Intra-African Trade Fair held in Algiers in 2025, illustrate this momentum. The event reportedly generated tens of billions of dollars in trade and investment agreements.
“Afreximbank, as you know, the co-mandate is to actually facilitate and promote intra-African trade, and this is basically trade amongst ourselves. As you may be aware, intra-African trade is very low, around 15 to 18 percent, and platforms like these are very good because you will actually discuss some of the key challenges that are affecting intra-African trade, and most importantly, focus on the solutions on how to deal with those. And at Afreximbank, we are proud to have been a key partner of the AFCFTA.”
GAINMORE ZANAMWE, Director Trade Facilitation and Investment Promotion, Afreximbank – Zimbabwe
The success of the AfCFTA will now depend on the ability of African states to translate political commitments into concrete results on the ground. An economic integration process that could permanently reshape the continent’s trade balance and redefine Africa’s place in the global economy.
