The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has projected that intra-African trade will reach a yearly volume of $250 billion this year, about 14 per cent rise from $220 billion recorded last year.

The Secretary-General of AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, said this on the sidelines of the Invest Lagos 3.0 Conference in Lagos.

He said 50 African countries are currently implementing the agreement, with all underlying protocols concluded, providing a firmer basis for regional economic integration and cross-border commerce.

Mene urged African countries to deepen trade among themselves in the face of growing global market uncertainties, warning that many nations on the continent had continued to lose market share in traditional export destinations while confronting rising trade barriers.

“Many African countries have lost market share in key international markets and face increasing trade barriers. We have to build a strong domestic market within Africa because our future growth lies here on the continent,” he said.

He linked the urgency for stronger intra-African trade to recent global disruptions — the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the Middle East crisis, which he said, exposed Africa’s vulnerability to external shocks, supply chain disruptions and excessive import dependence.

On key obstacles to trade expansion, Mene identified high trade finance costs, inadequate transport infrastructure, logistics bottlenecks and restrictions on the movement of people as major impediments.

He illustrated the severity of the challenge by citing the Lagos-Abidjan corridor: transporting goods between the two cities, roughly 1,080 kilometres, can take up to 17 days due to multiple checkpoints and border-related delays.

Mene also called for wider adoption of visa-free and visa-on-arrival policies for African business travellers, arguing that easier movement of entrepreneurs, investors and skilled professionals would significantly accelerate trade and investment flows. He commended Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Rwanda, Kenya, Togo and Congo-Brazzaville for taking steps in that direction.

On the digital economy, Mene described Lagos as Africa’s leading fintech hub and a major centre for technological innovation, noting that the continent’s digital economy is projected to reach $712 billion by 2035.

He said the rapid growth of digital technologies presents significant opportunities for businesses, entrepreneurs and farmers through digital payments, e-commerce, connectivity and emerging technologies.

“The future of Africa’s economy will be driven by digital innovation and industrialisation. We must invest in digital public infrastructure, data centres and payment systems that support seamless business transactions across borders,” he said.

He also highlighted the role of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) in enabling cross-border transactions in local currencies, thereby reducing the continent’s dependence on the United States dollar for intra-African trade.

On industrial development, Mene described manufacturing as central to Africa’s economic transformation, noting that Lagos hosts one of the continent’s largest concentrations of industrial enterprises. He urged governments, development finance institutions and private investors to expand manufacturers’ access to capital while dismantling the trade barriers constraining the movement of goods across African markets.