AfCFTA Cannot Only Move African Goods. It Must Build African Value

Africa has spent years building the legal architecture for a continental market.

Now the harder phase begins.

The African Continental Free Trade Area is moving from negotiation toward implementation. In July, AfCFTA trade ministers said the legal architecture was substantially in place and that the focus was shifting decisively toward making the agreement work for businesses and citizens. AfCFTA Media Hub

That is important progress.

But Africa should be careful not to measure AfCFTA only by whether goods can cross borders more easily.

The bigger question is:

How much of the value around those goods will Africans actually build, own and participate in?

Because a continent can become more efficient at moving commodities without necessarily becoming more economically powerful.

Trade is not the same as transformation

Africa is already deeply connected to the global economy.

The African Union recently reported that roughly 85% of Africa’s trade still takes place with countries outside the continent. At the same time, more than 60% of intra-African trade consists of manufactured goods. African Union

That distinction matters.

When African countries trade more with one another, they tend to trade more processed and manufactured products.

That means intra-African trade has the potential to do something global commodity trade often does not:

retain more value inside African economies.

The opportunity is therefore larger than tariff reduction.

It is about regional value chains.

A mineral can cross a border without Africa gaining much value

Consider a raw material.

It can be extracted in one African country.

Transported through another.

Exported through an African port.

Processed elsewhere.

Financed elsewhere.

Insured elsewhere.

Branded elsewhere.

Sold through distribution networks elsewhere.

And perhaps returned to Africa later as a finished product.

The commodity moved.

Trade happened.

But much of the value around that commodity was created outside Africa.

AfCFTA should help change that pattern.

The objective should not only be to move African goods more efficiently.

It should be to make it easier for Africans to build more of what happens before, around and after the transaction.

Processing.

Manufacturing.

Packaging.

Logistics.

Certification.

Standards.

Finance.

Data.

Marketing.

Distribution.

Research.

Publishing.

Technical services.

Commercial relationships.

That is where a great deal of economic value actually sits.

The encouraging sign is already visible

The African Union’s own trade analysis points to something important.

While most African trade still flows outside the continent, intra-African trade contains a much higher share of manufactured products. African Union

That suggests African integration is not only about moving more goods.

It can support more complex forms of production.

A new example appeared only days ago.

Five African heads of state joined the launch of a planned $16 billion refinery in Lamu, Kenya, designed to process crude oil within Africa rather than simply export raw material for refining elsewhere. The planned facility is expected to process about 700,000 barrels a day when completed. AP News

The project will still have to navigate environmental, land and commercial challenges.

But the direction is significant.

It represents the idea that Africa should participate in more of the processing layer around its own resources.

Implementation now matters more than declarations

AfCFTA’s potential is not in doubt.

The implementation challenge is.

A 2026 World Economic Forum review found that practical AfCFTA implementation depends on much more than tariff schedules.

It highlighted customs integration, mutual recognition of standards, domestic taxes and fees, non-tariff barriers, infrastructure and security as critical factors in turning the agreement into commercially usable trade. World Economic Forum

That is the difference between a trade agreement on paper and a functioning market.

A small business does not experience AfCFTA as a treaty.

It experiences it as:

Can I find the buyer?

Can the buyer verify me?

Can I understand the rules?

Can I move the goods?

Can I meet the standard?

Can I get paid?

Can I prove where the product came from?

Can I resolve a problem when something goes wrong?

Can I build a relationship that continues after one transaction?

Those are participation questions.

Africa’s informal economy cannot sit outside the continental market

This is one of the most important parts of the AfCFTA discussion.

The International Labour Organization reported this month that more than 85% of employment in Africa is informal.

Even among jobs linked to trade, more than three quarters are informal in the African countries examined by the ILO. Informal cross-border trade alone provides livelihoods for a substantial share of the continent’s economically active population. International Labour Organization

That means AfCFTA cannot succeed only through large corporations and formal exporters.

A very large part of Africa’s economy is made up of:

small traders,

farmers,

micro-enterprises,

family businesses,

transporters,

informal manufacturers,

service providers,

and people moving goods across borders in relatively small quantities.

If those participants cannot enter the continental economy in a trusted and practical way, then Africa may build a free trade area that millions of Africans still experience from the outside.

Participation must come before exclusion

Formalisation matters.

Businesses need clearer identities.

Governments need tax visibility.

Workers need protection.

Buyers need confidence.

But Africa should avoid creating a model where the path to continental trade is so complex that only established companies can use it.

The ILO has warned that informal workers and enterprises often have very little influence over the trade policies that directly affect them. Formal exporting firms generally have better access to policymakers, while informal actors can struggle even to participate in consultations. International Labour Organization

That presents AfCFTA with a major challenge.

The continent has to formalise participation without destroying participation.

Those are not the same thing.

Value chains are really relationship chains

A value chain is often drawn as a diagram.

Producer.

Processor.

Transporter.

Distributor.

Retailer.

Customer.

But in reality, every arrow on that diagram is a relationship.

Who trusts whom?

Who has authority to act?

Who supplies whom?

Who gets paid?

Who owns the information?

Who can prove the transaction?

Who can find the next participant?

Who receives the opportunity?

Who remains connected after the deal is completed?

That is why African value-chain development cannot be treated only as an industrial policy issue.

It is also an identity, trust, information and relationship infrastructure issue.

If those systems remain fragmented, value chains remain fragmented.

AfCFTA must connect enterprises, not only borders

A border becoming easier to cross is useful.

But the entrepreneur on one side still has to discover the entrepreneur on the other.

The processor needs to find reliable supply.

The farmer needs to find a buyer.

The publisher needs to communicate opportunity.

The financier needs trusted information.

The institution needs to know who is acting on behalf of whom.

The participant needs a credible economic identity.

The market needs records.

That is where the next stage of African integration becomes much more practical.

The challenge is not only connecting countries.

It is connecting economic participants inside those countries.

Africa should measure what it retains

One of the simplest ways to think differently about African trade is to ask a different question.

Not only:

How much did Africa export?

But:

How much of the total value did Africa retain?

How much was processed here?

How much was financed here?

How much intellectual property was developed here?

How many African businesses participated?

How many local suppliers were connected?

How much knowledge was created?

How many commercial relationships remained African after the transaction?

Those measurements would tell us much more about economic transformation than export volumes alone.

The continental market must become productive

AfCFTA can become one of Africa’s most important economic projects.

But its success should not be defined merely by creating a larger market.

Africa already has markets.

What it needs is a more productive, connected and participatory economic system.

One in which a business in Zambia can discover a buyer in Ghana.

A processor in Kenya can source from Uganda.

A manufacturer in South Africa can find suppliers across the continent.

A farmer can move progressively from informal production into trusted commercial participation.

And a young entrepreneur entering the economy can participate in African value chains without first needing access to a multinational corporation or government department.

That is the deeper promise.

AfCFTA must build African value

AfCFTA should not simply make it easier for Africa to move what it already exports.

It should make it easier for Africans to build more of the value that comes before, around and after the transaction.

That means continental trade must become a pathway into:

processing,

enterprise development,

skills,

knowledge,

relationships,

technology,

and ownership.

The border is only one part of the problem.

The real objective is to ensure that when African goods move, African value grows with them.