Access Bank PLC's Managing Director and CEO Roosevelt Ogbonna and other participants at the Access Bank Africa Trade Conference (ATC 2026), has called for stronger collaboration among policymakers, financiers and businesses to accelerate trade within Africa and unlock the continent’s economic potential.
- •Speaking at the conference in South Africa, Ogbonna urged stakeholders across the continent to move beyond dialogue and take concrete steps that will strengthen trade relationships among African countries.
- •Africa’s share of global trade remains relatively small, as fragmented trade corridors and structural bottlenecks continue to hinder the growth of commerce across the continent.
- •The continent's economic transformation will depend largely on the willingness of businesses and institutions to collaborate more effectively.
“The reality is that Africa still controls a small share of global trade. The corridors are still fragmented and more aspirational than functional, and too many small businesses that aspire to trade across Africa remain constrained," Ogbonna said.
According to the Access Bank CEO, include breaking down silos between policymakers, financial institutions and businesses; Building a trade ecosystem driven by reliable data and analytics; and developing systems that support both large corporations and smaller businesses seeking to expand across borders.
“We have seen value chains emerging across agriculture, manufacturing and services, and we are seeing African brands crossing borders and building a global presence,” he added.
Ogbonna also pointed to the growing role of technology platforms in reducing friction in areas such as payments, logistics and market access. He, however acknowledged, that the gains remain uneven across the continent, with progress concentrated in a few markets and specific trade corridors.
Private Capital, and the Place of Policy
Kennedy Mbekeani, the Director General for Southern Africa at the African Development Bank (AfDB), called for stronger mobilisation of private capital to finance critical infrastructure required to unlock the full potential of Africa’s trade integration.
“The mobilisation of private capital remains crucial as 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.
Policymakers are also pushing for policy alignment across countries to unlock the continent’s trade potential, as they also evolve their internal policies to better match the continent's needs. Botswana, for example, is reshaping it's internal view to become a key trade corridor.
“In the past we described ourselves as a landlocked country, but today we see ourselves as land-linked. By creating corridors that connect markets across the continent, we open up new opportunities for trade and economic growth,” Botswana’s Minister of Trade and Entrepreneurship, Tiroeaone Ntsima, said.
For these changes to work across the continent, policymakers are seeking to coordinate more nodes of trade and investment, making cross-border trade easier.
“If intra-African trade must be enhanced, we must deliberately craft policies that speak the same language across our countries. We should leverage our comparative advantages, rather than competing with one another,” Zambia’s Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Chipoka Mulenga said.
African ecosystems are fragmented across more than 50 countries and over 40 central banks, each operating under different regulatory frameworks. Experiments with cross-border settlement technologies are underway, including trials led by South Africa with regional partners, as regulators explore ways to modernise payment infrastructure and support growing intra-African trade.
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Fragmented Payment Systems are Slowing Africa's Trade, Rwanda's Trade Minister Says
