Africa must deepen intra-continental trade to unlock prosperity — Access Bank GMD

By Cynthia Alo

The Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Mr.Roosevelt Ogbonna, has called on African policymakers, financiers and businesses to deepen collaboration in order to accelerate intra-African trade and unlock the continent’s economic potentials.

Ogbonna made the call yesterday while welcoming participants to the Africa Trade Conference (ATC) 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa, noting that Africa must urgently dismantle structural barriers that continue to limit trade within the continent despite its vast market potential.

According to him, Africa still accounts for only a small share of global trade, while many trade corridors across the continent remain fragmented and largely aspirational rather than functional.

He stated: “Last year we asked ourselves a simple question, how can Africa trade with itself and with the rest of the world in a way that creates shared prosperity beyond just numbers. The facts were sobering. Africa still controls a small share of global trade and many small businesses that aspire to trade across borders remain constrained.” Ogbonna explained that deliberations at the maiden conference in 2025 identified three priority areas necessary to transform trade across the continent.

He noted that ATC 2026 was designed to continue the conversations started last year and push for concrete actions that would deepen trade integration across Africa.

According to him, while progress has been recorded in some areas, several structural challenges continue to limit seamless trade across African markets. Ogbonna also pointed to the growing role of technology platforms in reducing friction in payments, logistics and access to markets across borders.

However, he stressed that such progress has remained uneven, with most gains concentrated in markets where policy reforms have moved faster than in others.

“Many of these improvements are concentrated in specific markets and corridors, and that is not good enough if we are to truly unlock the potential of Africa’s trade,” he said.

He further identified high cost of finance, fragmented payment systems, infrastructure gaps and limited trade information as key constraints affecting businesses seeking to operate across African borders.