African businesses seeking to expand across the continent face high financing costs and limited access to trade finance, even as 81.3 per cent of surveyed executives expect their cross-border activity to increase over the next 12 months. The preliminary findings of the 2026 PAFTRAC Africa CEO Trade Survey also found that 57 per cent of executives said obtaining trade finance for cross-border transactions was difficult or very difficult.
The findings came at the World Trade Organisation Public Forum in Geneva. They describe a gap between businesses’ interest in intra-African commerce and the finance, payment and regulatory systems needed to support it.
Trade Interest, Financing Barriers
The Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee survey covers more than 2,500 business executives, up from 400 respondents when it began in 2021. Intra-African commerce has become the leading expansion destination among surveyed executives, ahead of China, Europe and the United States.
That interest hasn’t yet produced a large share of continental exports. Intra-African merchandise trade remains about 15 to 18 per cent of Africa’s total exports, according to the findings. The survey identifies access to affordable finance as one barrier to turning companies’ regional ambitions into more trade.
Citing International Finance Corporation analysis, PAFTRAC said African sovereign and institutional borrowers face an estimated $31 billion annually in excess financing costs tied to the pricing of African risk. Higher borrowing costs can also raise the cost of capital for businesses involved in production, investment and cross-border trade.
The IFC estimates that Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprise financing gap exceeds $331 billion. Research by the IFC on four West African economies estimated an annual trade-finance shortfall of $14 billion. That research also found that better access to finance, at lower cost, could increase merchandise trade in those markets.
AfCFTA Tools and Implementation
Awareness of some mechanisms linked to the African Continental Free Trade Area remains limited. Although 70.2 per cent of respondents said AfCFTA-related reforms had already had a tangible impact on their businesses, more than half weren’t familiar with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, or PAPSS.
PAPSS is designed to facilitate eligible cross-border payments in African currencies, reducing dependence on hard currencies for intra-African transactions. The survey found that awareness of other trade-facilitation tools also remained limited. Its findings identify both the availability of mechanisms and businesses’ understanding of them as factors affecting regional commerce.
Continental trade infrastructure alone may not increase commerce if businesses can’t obtain affordable finance, understand available mechanisms or navigate regulatory and logistical barriers. The survey points to a need for lower transaction and financing costs, wider access to trade finance, more effective payment systems and stronger implementation of AfCFTA rules.
For Nigeria and other major African economies, the challenge described in the findings is converting private-sector interest in regional markets into increased trade. The survey doesn’t report that interest as a measure of trade already completed: it records executives’ expectations and identifies continuing financial and institutional obstacles. How quickly those barriers are reduced could affect whether AfCFTA achieves the deeper regional integration its architects envisaged.