The real barrier to African integration is no longer a shortage of roads and ports - it is the stubborn failure to stitch existing assets into...
Record financing commitments are reshaping Africa’s trade architecture. Whether they reshape anything at the border is another matter entirely.
A landmark World Bank report challenges the orthodoxy of African trade policy - and the timing could not be more consequential.
A landmark East African railway deal shows that dismantling invisible trade barriers is just as critical as laying tracks - a lesson West Africa urgently needs...
By Ziad Hamoui Last month, from Ghanaian President Mahama’s appearance at the World Governments Summit in Dubai to his state visit to Zambia, the political will...
By Charles F.V. Chitekwe In a move that deserves far more global attention than it has received, Rwanda has eliminated visa fees for citizens of all...
By Lailla Mutajogera Global attention is currently fixed on the escalating tensions between Iran and the United States. For many observers, particularly in the West, this...
A new payment partnership between PAPSS and Kenya’s PesaLink is doing what roads and railways alone never could: making intra-African trade genuinely frictionless.
By Michele Moscaritoli The most consequential shift in African commerce isn’t happening across oceans. It’s happening across borders. For decades, the narrative around African trade focused...
By Michele Moscaritoli West Africa is recalibrating its economic compass – not outward toward traditional global markets, but inward, across its own borders. The shift is...
By Danilo Desiderio At the World Economic Forum in Davos, a provocative thesis emerged from the corridors of global finance: Africa’s 1.3 billion people represent potential,...
By Fidel Amakye Owusu The proposition that Africa’s fifty-four sovereign nations should negotiate as a single bloc is not radical – it is rational. Continental political...
By Ziad Hamoui When a Nigerian general recently floated the idea of fencing the country’s borders to combat terrorism, the response was swift and unforgiving. Colleagues...
By Lance Chisue A striking pattern is emerging across Africa’s economic landscape. After decades of fragmented markets and externally oriented trade, the continent is finally turning...
By Mark-Anthony Johnson Ethiopia’s ambitious US$12.5 billion airport project at Bishoftu represents far more than an infrastructure upgrade – it signals a fundamental shift in Africa’s...
By Ziad Hamoui Every year, somewhere between US$10 billion and US$24 billion worth of goods crosses African borders in what the United Nations Economic Commission for...
By Jastine Martine The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) promises to unite 1.4 billion people across 54 countries into a US$3.4 trillion market. On paper,...
By Danilo Desiderio Five years into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the gap between promise and delivery threatens to undermine the continent’s boldest economic...
By Kelly Mua Kingsly Africa proclaims the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as the world’s largest free-trade zone, spanning 1.4 billion people across 54 countries...
By Dr. Princess C. Mutisya “Africa has 33 currencies, yet none is accepted anywhere on the continent. I fly from Nairobi to Addis Ababa, show my...
By Dishant Shah Here is an uncomfortable truth that rarely makes headlines: Africa hemorrhages billions of dollars annually simply moving money within its own borders. Not...
By John Kourkoutas Corporate boardrooms across the developed world repeat the same tired mantra: African infrastructure challenges. Executives bemoan logistics while the Congo River carries more...
By Wavinya Makai For decades, Africa’s development narrative has been drafted in foreign ministries and multilateral boardrooms. The plot hinges on foreign direct investment, concessional loans,...
By John Kourkoutas In 1880, roughly 90 percent of Africa remained “unclaimed” by European colonial powers. A map from that year shows a continent mostly in...
By Dishant Shah Africa’s greatest obstacle was never its colonial-era borders. It was the enduring belief in their permanence – the idea that African economies must...
By Danilo Desiderio Four years after its historic launch, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) remains a promise more than a practice. Conceived as the...
By Dr. Princess C. Mutisya Every time a Kenyan exporter ships goods to Uganda and pays US$20 in foreign-exchange fees to settle the transaction, it’s not...
By Dishant Shah There’s a quiet power in symbolism – especially when it arrives not with fanfare, but in the form of a refrigerated truck loaded...
By Sheena Raikundalia Every year, Africa hemorrhages an estimated US$5 billion – not to corruption, not to mismanagement, but simply to the cost of moving money...
By Danilo Desiderio The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has become the most celebrated economic initiative on the continent. Leaders, policymakers, economists, and business associations...
By Ziad Hamoui When history looks back on the defining infrastructure projects of 21st-century Africa, the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor will stand out – not as just another...
By Danilo Desiderio In a continent where roads often end in red tape and distances stretch beyond infrastructure, the skies may hold the key to Africa’s...
By Danilo Desiderio “To draw legs on a snake” – a Chinese proverb warning against unnecessary embellishment – is more than a cautionary tale about overdesign....
By Ziad Hamoui In a landmark move for regional integration, the African Union Commission (AUC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, and the...
By Danilo Desiderio As protectionism rises in parts of the developed world, African nations are at a pivotal crossroads in their economic evolution. A recent commentary...
By Danilo Desiderio In the decades since the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has emerged as one of Africa’s most compelling development success stories. From the ashes of...
By Ziad Hamoui In the first quarter of 2025, a quiet but transformative shift reshaped Africa’s economic landscape: trade between the East African Community (EAC) and...
By Danilo Desiderio The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was hailed as a transformative milestone in Africa’s economic integration when it was signed in 2018....
By Danilo Desiderio Recent reports of a US$228.19 million drop in Ugandan exports to the East African Community (EAC) over the past year have painted a...
By Danilo Desiderio The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has released its highly anticipated 2025 African Trade Report, titled “African Trade in a Changing Global Financial Architecture.”...
By Danilo Desiderio Could the concept of a national “Made in” brand evolve into a unified, continent-wide “Made in Africa” initiative? This question is gaining traction...
By Danilo Desiderio A groundbreaking Afrobarometer survey spanning 34 African countries sheds light on a fascinating paradox: the appetite for trade liberalization is stronger in autocratic...
By Danilo Desiderio While tariffs have gained renewed attention under recent administrations, they are far from the only tools countries use to restrict imports. Beyond tariffs,...
Ghana has taken a bold step toward pan-African unity by implementing a visa-free policy for all African passport holders, effective January 1, 2025. This landmark decision...
By Dishant Shah After more than a decade of negotiations, the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) officially came into force in 2024, marking a historic milestone...
