The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has called on Nigeria and other African nations to bolster intra-African trade and resilience as a safeguard against geopolitical shocks. This appeal was made in a recently released Trade and Development Finance Brief titled ‘Africa’s Trade and Investment Landscape’, which examines the structural challenges influencing Africa’s trade performance and investment outlook in an increasingly uncertain global environment.
Current Trade Imbalances
The report highlights that Africa’s trade landscape remains heavily dominated by the export of raw materials, including agricultural products, oil, gas, and minerals. Conversely, imports continue to be heavily skewed toward manufactured goods and machinery. This configuration leaves many African economies overly exposed to unfavorable terms of trade shocks due to external headwinds such as commodity price volatility, geopolitical tensions, and associated global supply chain disruptions.
The Role of AfCFTA
The report emphasizes that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) remains central to efforts aimed at diversifying the continent’s trade base, strengthening regional value chains, and increasing intra-African trade. Alongside the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the AfCFTA provides a practical framework for integrating fragmented markets, expanding industrial production, and boosting productivity. Intra-African exports are projected to increase by more than 20 percent within a decade as implementation advances.
Infrastructure and Investment
The report further underscores the importance of scaling investment in trade-enabling infrastructure, including energy, transport, communications networks, ports, and logistics systems. Such investments can reduce the cost of doing business and improve cross-border trade flows. Targeted infrastructure investment could support industrialization, strengthen regional specialization, and enhance Africa’s competitiveness as an investment destination.
Additional Priorities
The report points to a wider set of priorities for strengthening the continent’s trade and investment ecosystem, including regulatory coherence, institutional strengthening, economic diversification, improved access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises, and greater use of digital financial technologies.
Investment Trends
The report notes that domestic and foreign investment are increasing across many African economies, despite the observed dominance of foreign investment. However, the direction of investment flows is uneven across sub-regions, with Eastern and Southern Africa receiving a larger share of foreign direct investment compared to Western and Central Africa.
Coordinated Action Needed
Afreximbank states that the findings reinforce the need for coordinated action to expand trade finance, improve trade-enabling infrastructure, deepen regional integration, and accelerate value addition across the continent. Dr. Yemi Kale, Managing Director of Research for Afreximbank, noted that regional development finance institutions, including Afreximbank, are playing an increasing role in supporting intra-African trade through trade finance and related initiatives.
