Africa’s $3.4 Trillion Trade Potential at Risk Without Reforms, Experts Warn

Experts at the Mentor MatchUp Challenge 7.0 (MMC 7.0) have warned that Africa’s ambitions for deeper intra-continental trade will remain constrained unless countries address gaps in digital capability, energy supply, and transport infrastructure.

The views were shared during a high-level panel session titled Practical Pathways for Unlocking New Trade Corridors, which examined the structural and policy reforms needed to expand commerce across African markets.

The panel featured Ifedayo Agoro, Founder of Dang Lifestyle; Eche Orji, Head of Southern Africa Business at Nepal Energies; and Bamidele Seun Owoola, Chief Executive Officer of Welcome2Africa International. The discussion was moderated by Lethabo Sithole, Managing Partner at Amila Africa.

Agoro opened the session by identifying digital infrastructure as one of Africa’s most underutilized trade enablers. She said technology has the power to collapse geographic barriers and accelerate market access across borders.

“Digital connectivity collapses distance. If someone is in Australia and you are in Nigeria, digital infrastructure allows you to close that gap quickly,” Agoro said.

Drawing from Dang Lifestyle’s operations, she explained how tracking behavioural data across markets such as Ghana and the United Kingdom enables targeted engagement strategies that outperform traditional marketing approaches.

She noted a shift away from high-cost macro-influencers toward hyperlocal micro-influencers and pop-up activations, which she described as more effective in trust-based markets.

“This approach fills communication gaps and delivers better returns, particularly where cultural fluency matters more than scale,” she said.
Taking a macroeconomic view, Orji described energy as both a catalyst and a constraint for Africa’s trade ambitions. With a continental market of approximately 1.4 billion people and an estimated $3.4 trillion in economic potential, he said reliable and affordable energy remains the backbone of both physical and digital trade corridors.

While acknowledging the importance of climate transition, Orji said Africa cannot ignore current realities. “Green technologies are still expensive,” he noted, adding that fossil fuels will remain critical in the near term as the continent works toward a gradual energy transition.
Referencing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its Pan-African Payments and Settlement System (PAPSS), Orji pointed to fragmented standards, pricing structures, logistics systems, and currency regimes as persistent barriers to effective implementation.
“If African countries can sit down to resolve these issues, we solve a major problem for intra-African trade,” he said, stressing that policy harmonization should be treated as a foundation for market expansion, not a bureaucratic exercise.

Owoola provided a stark illustration of Africa’s infrastructure challenges, citing the inefficiencies of inter-African travel and logistics. She recounted that traveling from Lagos to Durban required routing through Turkey, a detour she said undermines regional business integration.

“If it is easier to go to London for business, why would I want to do business in South Africa?” she asked.

She added that similar inefficiencies exist in maritime trade, noting that shipping goods to destinations such as Kenya often requires vessels to pass through Europe before returning to Africa.

“We need more infrastructure,” Owoola said, describing the current system as costly and counterproductive.

Owoola also highlighted a critical gap in the AfCFTA framework: the limited free movement of people. While goods are central to trade agreements, she argued that human mobility remains essential to making trade corridors functional.

“Goods don’t move on their own. Without addressing the movement of people, Africa’s aspiration for seamless trade corridors will remain incomplete,” she said.

The panel concluded that while Africa is poised for trade-led growth, unlocking its full potential will require coordinated reforms across technology, energy, infrastructure, and policy, supported by political will and private-sector collaboration.