Access Bank is urging African policymakers, financiers, and businesses to work together to boost intra-African trade. The bank’s Managing Director, Roosevelt Ogbonna, said collaboration is needed to unlock the continent’s economic potential. Ogbonna made the call at the Access Bank Africa Trade Conference (ATC 2026) held in South Africa. He noted that structural barriers continue to limit the growth of intra-continental commerce despite the continent’s market opportunities.
Speaking at the event, Ogbonna said the conference was convened to continue conversations that began at the inaugural edition in 2025. The goal is to help Africa expand trade within the continent while strengthening its participation in global markets. He noted that Africa’s share of global trade remains relatively small. Fragmented trade corridors and structural bottlenecks continue to hinder the growth of commerce across the continent.
“The reality is that Africa still controls a small share of global trade,” Ogbonna said. “The corridors are still fragmented and more aspirational than functional, and too many small businesses that aspire to trade across Africa remain constrained.”
Stakeholders at last year’s conference agreed on three priorities for transforming Africa’s trade setting. These include breaking down silos between policymakers, financial institutions, and businesses. The group also wants to build a trade ecosystem driven by reliable data and analytics. A third priority is developing systems that support both large corporations and smaller businesses seeking to expand across borders.
Barriers to trade integration
While some developments have already been recorded across key sectors, significant challenges remain. Ogbonna pointed to the growing role of technology platforms in reducing friction in payments, logistics, and market access. However, he noted that the progress remains uneven across the continent and concentrated in a few markets and trade corridors. The African Development Bank’s Director General for Southern Africa, Kennedy Mbekeani, agreed that mobilising private capital is key. He said many African governments are constrained by limited fiscal space and overstretched balance sheets.
“The mobilisation of capital, particularly private capital, is something that we need to work on,” Mbekeani said.
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Zambia’s Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Chipoka Mulenga, said policy alignment among African countries would be critical to unlocking the continent’s trade potential. Mulenga noted that policy must be consistent, resilient, and coherent.
“If intra-African trade must be enhanced, we must deliberately craft policies that speak the same language across our countries,” Mulenga said.
Ghana’s Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Elizabeth Ajare, said Africa’s challenge lies less in policy formulation and more in harmonised implementation. She argued that the continent already has many policies, but they are not implemented consistently.
“Africa does not lack policies; we already have many,” Ajare said. “Our challenge is the implementation of these policies in a harmonised manner.”
Ajare added that countries must be willing to compromise and adopt mutual recognition frameworks to facilitate cross-border trade. She argued that insisting on verifying every product independently would hinder progress. Harmonising standards and recognising each other’s certification processes would allow the continent to trade more efficiently.
Creating enabling environments
Botswana’s Minister of Trade and Entrepreneurship, Tiroeaone Ntsima, said African governments must focus on creating enabling environments that allow businesses and investors to drive economic growth. He argued that the role of government has changed from doing everything itself to enabling others to succeed.
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“Our role now is to create an enabling environment for businesses and investors to thrive,” Ntsima said.
Ntsima added that Botswana is repositioning itself as a key trade corridor within the region. The country is moving away from the idea of being a landlocked nation.
“In the past we described ourselves as a landlocked country, but today we see ourselves as land-linked,” Ntsima said. “By creating corridors that connect markets across the continent, we open up new opportunities for trade and economic growth.”
Ogbonna urged stakeholders to move beyond dialogue and take concrete steps to strengthen trade relationships across the continent. He stressed that the conference must not end as another talking shop.
“This conference must not end as another talking shop. It must become the birthplace of a movement that contributes to transforming intra-African trade,” Ogbonna said.
