As African countries look to improve intra-African trade, which currently stands at 15 per cent, a new report has revealed that Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and South Africa are key drivers of intra-African trade. The five countries alone contributed $63.89 million to continental trade in 2024.
   
In contrast, several countries, including Burundi, Chad, Comoros, Cabo Verde, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, participated very poorly in regional trade. This is according to the African Export-Import Bank (AfreximBank) Africa Trade Heatmaps report.
 
The report noted that South Africa excelled in maintaining robust bilateral trade relationships with both African and non-African partners, including China, India, the United States, Belgium and France. In contrast, landlocked or smaller economies such as Burundi, Comoros and São Tomé and Príncipe fell into the lowest trade quintiles, indicating their limited integration into global trade networks.

Highlighting the fact that China remained the dominant trading partner for most African countries including Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, it stated that China is still the continent’s single largest trading partner.
 
Among African regional blocs, the Southern African sub-region stood out with the highest share of intra-regional trade at 81.4 per cent. It reflected the region’s advanced trade infrastructure, diversified economy and strong regional economic cooperation, particularly within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Eastern Africa and Western Africa also demonstrated relatively high rates of internal trade, at 63.6 per cent and 66.3 per cent, respectively, indicating a trend toward greater integration. Northern Africa followed with 49.4 per cent, reflecting strong connections among the economies in that region. In contrast, Central Africa registered the lowest rate of intra-regional trade at 14.2 per cent.  However, trade between Central and Southern
Africa remained the highest rate at 58.9 per cent regarding inter-bloc trade on the continent, surpassing other pairings such as Eastern Africa–Southern (23.1 per cent) and Northern Africa–Western (19.7 per cent).
 
This strong trade flow between the Central and Southern African regions, the report noted, is likely driven by significant mineral and energy trade corridors, as well as other infrastructure connecting Southern African countries and the resource-rich economies of Central Africa.
     
It went on to indicate that African exports are largely dominated by commodities, with agricultural products, fuels and mining products, the leading components of the export baskets of most countries. In contrast, high-tech sectors such as machinery, chemicals, telecommunications and electronics represented a minimal portion, typically accounting for less than five per cent of exports in most nations.

“African countries exhibit a strong reliance on industrial and manufactured products. For instance, machinery and transport equipment are predominant in the continent’s imports. This suggested that African economies are still heavily dependent on foreign sources for infrastructure development, capital goods, and industrial machinery, weighing on the continent’s balance of payments.” However, it noted that AfCFTA is an opportunity for African countries to accelerate the process of manufacturing and industrialisation as well as value addition to a variety of sectors.