More than half of African business executives say they struggle to secure the money needed for cross-border trade. Preliminary findings from the 2026 PAFTRAC Africa CEO Trade Survey, presented at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Public Forum in Geneva, found that 57 per cent considered trade finance for cross-border transactions difficult or very difficult.
That’s a stubborn problem for a continent betting heavily on regional integration. The survey, conducted by the Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee (PAFTRAC), found that 81.3 per cent of executives expect their cross-border business activities to grow over the next 12 months. Appetite isn’t the issue. Access is.
Who Is Affected
The survey now covers more than 2,500 business executives, compared with 400 respondents when it began in 2021. Intra-African commerce has become their leading destination for expansion, ahead of China, Europe and the United States. Yet intra-African merchandise trade still accounts for only about 15 to 18 per cent of Africa’s total exports.
Smaller firms feel the squeeze most acutely. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing gap at more than $331 billion. Research across four West African economies put the annual trade-finance shortfall at $14 billion, and found that better access and lower financing costs could lift merchandise trade in those markets.
The cost of capital starts at the top. Citing IFC analysis, PAFTRAC said African sovereign and institutional borrowers face an estimated $31 billion a year in excess financing costs tied to how lenders price African risk. When governments and institutions borrow at higher rates, businesses involved in production, investment and cross-border trade can also face higher capital costs.
The Implementation Gap
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is working for some. Some 70.2 per cent of respondents said AfCFTA-related reforms had already made a tangible difference to their businesses. But the survey also showed how much of the system’s machinery remains unused.
More than half of respondents didn’t know about the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a tool designed to facilitate eligible cross-border payments in African currencies and reduce reliance on hard currencies for intra-African transactions. Awareness of other trade-facilitation tools also remained limited.
The findings said continental trade infrastructure alone may not be enough to increase commerce. Businesses also need affordable finance, a clear understanding of the mechanisms available to them, and ways to get through regulatory and logistical barriers.
What Comes Next
For Nigeria and other major African economies, the survey points to a clear list of tasks. Turning private-sector interest in regional markets into actual trade will require lower transaction and financing costs, wider access to trade finance, more effective payment systems and stronger implementation of AfCFTA rules.
The findings described a persistent gap between businesses’ growing interest in trading with one another and the financial and institutional barriers they face. How quickly those barriers come down could shape whether AfCFTA achieves the deeper regional integration its architects envisaged.
Why This Matters:
A free trade agreement is only as strong as ordinary firms’ ability to use it. The survey suggests the barriers aren’t mainly about ambition: four in five executives expect to expand across borders, yet many can’t access the credit that makes trade possible. With an SME financing gap above $331 billion and $31 billion a year in excess borrowing costs linked to how African risk is priced, smaller businesses bear the heaviest burden, even as they employ workers and anchor local economies. Closing that gap will likely require public action, including better payment systems, wider awareness of existing tools and consistent enforcement of AfCFTA rules. Without it, regional integration’s promise risks staying on paper while the benefits flow to firms already able to afford the cost of capital.