LAGOS, Nigeria, March 16/APO Group: The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank Plc, Mr. Roosevelt Ogbonna, has urged for stronger collaboration among policymakers, financiers, and businesses to accelerate trade within Africa while at the same time, unlocking the continent’s economic potential.
Ogbonna made the call at the Access Bank Africa Trade Conference (ATC 2026) held in South Africa, where he emphasised that Africa must address structural barriers that continue to impede the growth of intra-continental commerce despite its vast market opportunities.
In his opening remarks, the Access Bank Chief noted that the conference was convened to continue conversations that started at the inaugural edition in 2025 on how Africa can expand trade within the continent while strengthening its participation in global markets.
He noted that Africa’s share of global trade remains relatively small, stressing that fragmented trade corridors and structural bottlenecks continue to hinder the growth of commerce across the continent.
“The reality is that Africa still controls a small share of global trade. The corridors are still fragmented and more aspirational than functional, and too many small businesses that aspire to trade across Africa remain constrained,” he was quoted.
He outlined key priorities, as discussed during last year’s conference, to help transform Africa’s landscape. It includes: Breaking down silos between policymakers, financial institutions, and businesses; Building a trade ecosystem driven by reliable data and analytics; and Developing systems that support both large corporations and smaller businesses seeking to expand across borders.
Ogbonna also pointed to the growing role played by technology platforms in reducing friction in areas such as payments, logistics, and market access. He, however, acknowledged that the gains remain uneven across the continent, with progress concentrated in a few markets and specific trade corridors.
Speaking on the need for stronger infrastructure financing in growing intra-African trade, the Director General for Southern Africa at the African Development Bank (AfDB), Kennedy Mbekeani, has called for stronger mobilisation of private capital to finance the needed critical infrastructure to unlock the full potential of Africa’s trade integration.
“The mobilisation of private capital remains crucial as many African governments are constrained by limited fiscal space and overstretched balance sheets. The mobilisation of capital, particularly private capital, is something that we need to work on”, Mbekeani said.
Speaking up on African governments’ perspective on the drive for intra-African trade, Zambia’s Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Chipoka Mulenga, noted that policy alignment among African countries would be critical to unlocking the continent’s trade potential.
“Policy is very important in making anything come together. It must be consistent, resilient, and coherent. If intra-African trade must be enhanced, we must deliberately craft policies that speak the same language across our countries. We should leverage our comparative advantages, rather than competing with one another,” he stated during a ministerial panel discussion.
