Afreximbank Trade and Development Finance Brief Highlights Urgent Need to Strengthen Africa’s Trade and Investment Resilience

Why it Matters

Afreximbank’s latest brief reinforces a long-running structural issue for African economies: the continent remains heavily exposed to raw material exports while importing a large share of manufactured goods and machinery. That configuration leaves many markets vulnerable to commodity price volatility, geopolitical disruption and unfavourable terms-of-trade shocks.

For the rail, transport and logistics sectors, the brief is relevant because it identifies trade-enabling infrastructure as a core requirement for stronger intra-African trade and investment resilience. Energy, transport networks, ports, communications and logistics systems are positioned as essential to reducing the cost of doing business, improving cross-border trade flows and supporting industrialisation across regional value chains.

African Export-Import Bank -Afreximbank, has released Volume 10, Issue 1 of its Trade and Development Finance Brief, titled “Africa’s Trade and Investment Landscape”, which examines the structural challenges shaping Africa’s trade performance and investment outlook in an increasingly uncertain global environment.

The current edition highlights that Africa’s trade landscape remains heavily dominated by exports of raw materials, including agricultural products, oil, gas and minerals, while imports continue to be heavily skewed towards manufactured goods and machinery. The Brief notes that the existing export-import configuration leaves many African economies overly exposed to unfavourable terms-of-trade shocks on account of external headwinds, including commodity price volatility, geopolitical tensions and associated global supply chain disruptions.

According to the Brief, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) remains central to efforts aimed at diversifying the continent’s trade base, strengthening regional value chains and increasing intra-African trade. The publication notes that, alongside the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the AfCFTA provides a practical framework for integrating fragmented markets, expanding industrial production and boosting productivity, with intra-African exports projected to increase by more than 20 percent within a decade as implementation advances.

Additionally, the Brief further highlights the importance of scaling investment in trade-enabling infrastructure, including energy, transport, communications networks, ports and logistics systems, to reduce the cost of doing business and improve cross-border trade flows. It notes that targeted infrastructure investment can support industrialisation, strengthen regional specialisation and improve Africa’s competitiveness as an investment destination.

The edition also points to a broader set of priorities for strengthening Africa’s trade and investment ecosystem, including regulatory coherence, institutional strengthening, economic diversification, improved access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises and greater use of digital financial technologies. The Brief notes that domestic and foreign investment are increasing across many African economies, while fintech is contributing to growth in domestic investment, underscoring the opportunity to build a more resilient, diversified and investment-ready trade landscape.

It also notes that domestic and foreign investment are increasing across many African economies, notwithstanding the observed dominance of foreign investment. It further highlights that the direction of investment flows remains uneven across sub-regions, with Eastern and Southern Africa receiving a larger share of foreign direct investment compared to Western and Central Africa.

Afreximbank said the findings reinforce the need for coordinated action to expand trade finance, improve trade-enabling infrastructure, deepen regional integration and accelerate value addition across the continent.

Dr Yemi Kale, Group Chief Economist and Managing Director, Research, said: “Regional development finance institutions, including the African Export-Import Bank, are playing an increasing role in supporting intra-African trade through trade finance and related initiatives. The Brief points to Afreximbank initiatives such as the Intra-African Trade Fair, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund, the Border Markets Initiative and the Collaborative Transit Guarantee Scheme as part of the wider effort to strengthen Africa’s trade and investment ecosystem.

“The report concludes that while progress is being made, significant gaps remain. Addressing these gaps will be essential to increasing financing, strengthening competitiveness and unlocking Africa’s full trade and investment potential.”

Facts

• Afreximbank’s Trade & Development Finance Brief, Volume 10, Issue 1, 2026 identifies weak or underdeveloped rail transportation systems as part of the critical infrastructure gap affecting Africa’s industrialisation and regional trade performance.
• The brief states that intra-African trade currently accounts for only 15–17% of total trade, despite policy ambitions to increase regional trade through the AfCFTA and African Union Agenda 2063.
• Afreximbank notes that Africa’s trade represents only around 3% of total global trade, reflecting the continent’s continued marginal position in global trade flows.
• The brief identifies inadequate infrastructure as a major constraint on trade and investment, citing an estimated annual African infrastructure financing gap of approximately US$100 billion.
• Transport-related constraints highlighted in the brief include deficiencies in transportation networks, inadequate port facilities, poor road networks and weak logistics systems, all of which raise the cost of doing business.
• Citing the Africa Finance Corporation’s 2024 infrastructure report, the brief notes that 13 sub-Saharan African countries lack operational rail networks, with roughly half of these countries being landlocked.
• Afreximbank links these infrastructure gaps to weaker cross-border trade, reduced competitiveness and lower investment attractiveness across African markets.