The African Export-Import Bank has warned that Africa’s failure to trade effectively within itself stems largely from poor market intelligence, weak connectivity, and the absence of structured trade platforms.
The Executive Vice President, Intra-African Trade and Export Development at Afreximbank, Kanayo Awani, speaking on Monday at the Nigeria for the Intra-African Trade Fair 2025 Business Roadshow held in Lagos, noted that the continent’s trade has been stunted due to the continued inability to build stable platforms.
She said, “Africans were not trading with one another, not because of a lack of will, but because of a lack of market intelligence, connectivity, and structured platforms.”
She explained that these trade gaps are a direct result of colonial-era trade patterns that hardwired African economies to depend on external markets for goods the continent could supply.
Awani explained, “Historically, our trade patterns and trade rules were hardwired to the art world, to Europe for machinery, to Asia for textiles, to the Americas for food, and to everywhere in the world we imported from, whatever, wherever, and we ignored what we had at home. A Ghanaian shoemaker would look to Argentina for leather while Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Burundi overflow with hides.”
Afreximbank’s VP also noted that West Africa spends $3bn annually importing meat from as far as Australia, despite livestock abundance in Chad, South Sudan, Botswana, Mali and Nigeria.
She maintained that the time has come for the continent to shift from such external dependencies and embrace internal trade opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“We must urgently turn inward, deepen our integration and build resilient regional value chains that serve African needs with African solutions,” Awani asserted. “Intra-African trade is no longer a diplomatic aspect. It is an imperative for survival, recovery, and long-term prosperity.”
Afreximbank is a promoter of the upcoming IATF 2025 held in Algeria from September 4-10. It emphasised the role of intra-African trade platforms such as the AFCFTA.
Awani stressed the need for an “Africa-first mentality” to replace what she described as a history of fragmentation deliberately engineered by colonial powers. “It was a deliberate spiralling of colonialism to ensure that Africans would not trade with each other… a strategy that reduced African economic policy to gathering crops and bartering them,” she added.
Afreximbank’s VP described the IATF as a key mechanism to reverse this trend by creating a continental marketplace that links African producers, buyers, investors, and entrepreneurs. “We are bridging critical market and information gaps… connecting buyers and sellers, venture capitalists to ventures, and opening access to new markets,” she declared.
Awani noted that the IATF has facilitated over $100bn in trade and investment deals since its launch, with Nigerian enterprises generating over $11bn in signed deals at the 2023 edition alone, stating, “Nigeria always shows up. It must not just participate, it must lead.”
She commended Nigeria’s government for policies that support trade facilitation, including export-oriented special economic zones, digital customs platforms, and support for non-oil exports through the Export Expansion Facility Programme.
She also praised the collaboration between Afreximbank and the Federal Government on initiatives like the African Trade and Distribution Commune, designed to address cross-border challenges and support SMEs.
“Nigeria, with its 200 million people, GDP of nearly $500bn, industrial potential and cultural influence, has to be a continental powerhouse and driving force behind the AfCFTA,” Awani remarked.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Nonye Ayeni, said Africa’s intra-regional trade, currently less than 15 per cent of its total, remains far below other regions like Europe and Asia.
Ayeni called for deliberate investment in sustainable value chains to harness AfCFTA’s potential, adding “We have the land, resources, and brilliant people. What we need now are the three Cs — collaboration, commitment, and coordination.”
She noted that in 2024 alone, Nigerian non-oil exports grew 24.7 per cent in the first quarter, with 246 agricultural products exported to 126 countries.
Ayeni announced that NEPC, in collaboration with stakeholders, had identified 20 priority products and five target markets for each as part of its AfCFTA strategy. She added that the recent approval of the CFA franc as a repatriation currency would ease trade with francophone markets.
NEPC’s CEO also revealed that the Council had begun capturing informal trade data at Nigeria’s borders to help policymakers make evidence-based trade decisions.
Ayeni concluded, “We are not just participating in IATF 2025; we are mobilising Nigerian exporters to lead. This is our story, and it must change.”
