While African CEOs increasingly see the AfCFTA as a vital catalyst for regional growth, the 5th PAFTRAC survey shows that policy failures, political risk, and mobility restrictions continue to hold back the agreement's $3.5 trillion potential, reports Kwame Appiah
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is viewed by African CEOs as a catalyst for regional expansion and growth, but policy implementation failures, non-tariff barriers, and mobility restrictions continue to impede the realisation of its full $3.5 trillion potential. With the release of the latest Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee (PAFTRAC) Africa CEO Trade Survey report, in partnership with African Business magazine, a panel of experts called for more deliberate implementation and coordination to give the agreement full rein.
According to the 5th and latest PAFTRAC CEO trade survey, Africa's business leaders are becoming more aware of the trade scheme and its benefits, although many have concerns about its effective implementation. Following its release, PAFTRAC convened a panel of experts on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 to examine how Africa can strategically position itself in a shifting global trade landscape by translating insights from the Africa CEO Trade Survey 2025 into practical actions and to identify priority measures necessary for the success of the AfCFTA and its broader objectives.
Professor Pat Utomi, chairman of PAFTRAC, opened the discussion by explaining that PAFTRAC was founded "because of a certain sense that policymakers on the continent were entering into international trade agreements without input from their private sector, and so were not getting optimal outcomes from those trade agreements." He emphasised that in 2021, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, PAFTRAC decided to undertake the annual survey to take the temperature of the continent's business community.
Utomi said the report shows that there is growing awareness of the AfCFTA among African businesses. "Most African businesses are very aware of the leverage that AfCFTA can provide, especially in the face of a very fragmented trade space." He noted that African businesspersons have come to increasingly rely on intra-African trade in the face of international shocks such as the trade wars launched by the current United States' administration. "One of the things that AfCFTA has done is to try and develop operational mechanisms for making this possible, amongst them perhaps the Pan-African Payment Settlement System," he added.
The report, Utomi said, also shows increasing awareness of sustainability and digitisation. "African businessmen have become acutely aware of the importance of sustainability for African trade. With the evident focus of European and other trading partners on sustainability, it has become a factor that these African businessmen are keying into and responding to." Africa, he stressed, has a lot of potential, despite its current meagre trade output. "The situation where African trade is at less than 3% of global trade is unacceptable, but Africa is learning that in trading with its neighbours and aggregating across borders, it can become a more impactful part of the international trading community," he said.
Utomi said the current disruption in global trade should spur African integration, pointing out that "the other side of crisis is opportunity". The imposition of tariffs, he said, has sensitised African businesses to the importance of boosting intra-African trade, which mirrors similar trends in Asia and Asia. To further boost trade, he called for the continent's development finance institutions to work closely with organisations like PAFTRAC to catalyse regional trade.
While regional trade is expected to get a huge fillip from the AfCFTA, as Ade Adefeko, Vice President of Government Relations at Olam International argued, it will require commitment to its implementation. "We must be strategic, intentional and deliberate," he stressed, noting that this SID principle is often largely missing from policy making and corporate practice in the continent.
Drawing on his experience at Olam, Adefeko highlighted some of the structural inefficiencies that undermine intra-African trade. "Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava, yet we import it as a source of starch." He said while noting that domestic production gaps are routinely filled by informal or illegal flows, such as rice, which is met by smuggling. Addressing this will require government action, as it is not within the power or private sector actors to counter illegal activities, he observed.
Adefeko further argued that the continent's progress is constrained by incremental rather than transformative action. "We do a lot in what you call arithmetic progression rather than geometry." Investment in agriculture, for example, remains limited despite long-standing commitments. "The Malabo Declaration says 10% of budgets should be given to agriculture, but a lot of us struggle between 1 and 3%." He called for collaboration across the private sector, instead of the current "silo mentality" that a lot of companies have, stressing that Africa's marginal role in global trade cannot be addressed through short-termism. "We live in ad hocism," he said, adding that "we can't get long-term development that way."
Echoing that sentiment, Mustapha Njie, CEO of real estate firm, TAF Global Group, lamented the lack of political stability in parts of the continent which makes long term planning extraordinarily difficult for businesses. He explained that political risk is the single greatest constraint on scaling his own business. "My major problem in expanding across the continent is political risk. You cannot even plan for the medium term," he said, adding that in most countries, change of government often means a total change in strategy, which affects businesses.
Despite these constraints, Njie said businesses on the continent, particularly the informal sector, are demonstrating remarkable resilience and ingenuity, such as when his company has been able to call on artisans across borders to execute projects. Another source of hope is the continent's youth, which he pointed out constitutes most of its citizens. Ultimately, while entrepreneurs on the continent must grapple with uncertainty, great opportunities abound for those able to navigate its volatilities.
Ultimately, the success of the AfCFTA will depend on policymakers' ability to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs and traders to take advantage of. As Adefeko noted, this goal is currently undermined by barriers to mobility across the continent. "The bulk of the people cannot even move around the continent. It cost me N450,000 to pick up an Algerian visa, which costs N78,000 at the embassy in Abuja. Why can't I just have an AU passport?" Addressing such concerns and others highlighted in the PAFTRAC report, will be key to ensuring that the AfCFTA, touted as a transformational initiative, achieves its full promise.