Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, has again insisted that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), remains Africa’s most powerful lever for trade and investment growth, even as the continent continues to grapple with implementation bottlenecks that have slowed the agreement’s real-world impact.

Speaking, yesterday, at the Biashara Africa Forum in Lome, Togo, Oduwole described AfCFTA as Africa’s ‘biggest strategic plan’ for lifting economies out of poverty and building prosperity across the continent at a time of heightened global uncertainty, shifting trade alignments and tariff-related disruptions.

Her comments come as African policymakers and business leaders intensify calls for deeper regional integration, arguing that the continent can no longer rely primarily on external markets while barriers to intra-African commerce remain entrenched.

Stressing that Africa must prioritise Africa, she acknowledged, however, that the agreement still faces practical obstacles that often undermine the spirit of regional integration.

Lamenting a recent example in Togo, where some African investors holding ECOWAS passports were refused entry into the country and were instead asked to use foreign passports to obtain visas, she said this in unacceptable and reflects a broader continental challenge.

For AfCFTA to succeed, she said, implementation must go beyond summit declarations and ministerial communiqués. It must be understood and executed by civil servants, border officials and agencies responsible for immigration, logistics and trade administration, she said.

Pushing back against the suggestion that AfCFTA remains largely confined to paper, she said trading activity is already expanding and measurable gains are emerging across sectors.

However, she noted that if major corporate players still find it difficult to navigate the continent, the barriers facing smaller firms are likely much worse.

“If it is difficult for people like Dangote or Rabiu going around the continent, what on earth would MSMEs, women and youth-led businesses say?” she queried.

She stressed that the promise of a single African market depends not only on tariff schedules and high-level protocols, but on whether small businesses can access customers, move goods, secure payment and travel across borders without costly friction.

As Nigeria prepares to host the upcoming AfCFTA ministerial meeting, Oduwole said her focus as incoming chair of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers will be firmly centered on implementation. She said the goal is to move from ambition to practical delivery, with trade facilitation at the top of the agenda.

Among the priorities she outlined were the smoother movement of goods, stronger market access, integrated regional value chains, private-sector enablement and digital trade infrastructure. She also stressed the need to mobilise African capital to support continental trade and industrialisation. She said sovereign wealth funds, pension assets and other pools of domestic capital should play a bigger role, while payment systems must better enable businesses to transact in local currencies.

Arguing that Nigeria and Africa’s best defense and opportunity is greater internal cohesion, she said AfCFTA is ‘our silver bullet’.