More than half of African business executives say they can’t easily get the money they need to trade across borders. That’s the headline finding from the 2026 PAFTRAC Africa CEO Trade Survey, whose preliminary results the organisers presented at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Public Forum in Geneva. Fifty-seven per cent of respondents said obtaining trade finance for cross-border transactions was difficult or very difficult.
The appetite is there. Roughly four in five executives, 81.3 per cent, expect their cross-border business activities to grow over the next 12 months. The money and machinery haven’t caught up.
The Survey
The Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee (PAFTRAC) now covers more than 2,500 business executives, up from 400 respondents when the survey began in 2021. Among those surveyed, intra-African commerce has become the leading expansion destination, ahead of China, Europe and the United States.
The trade itself tells a more sobering story. Intra-African merchandise trade still accounts for only about 15 to 18 per cent of Africa’s total exports. Businesses want to sell to their neighbours. Too often, they can’t afford to.
The Cost of Capital
Citing analysis from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), PAFTRAC said African sovereign and institutional borrowers face an estimated $31 billion a year in excess financing costs tied to the pricing of African risk. Higher borrowing costs can also push up the cost of capital for companies involved in production, investment and cross-border trade.
The IFC puts Africa’s financing gap for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at more than $331 billion. Its research on four West African economies estimated an annual trade-finance shortfall of $14 billion, and found that better access and lower financing costs could increase merchandise trade in those markets.
These are private-sector problems with private-sector stakes. Firms that can’t borrow at reasonable rates don’t expand, hire or export.
Implementation Gaps
The survey also points to a gap between what the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) promises on paper and what businesses can use in practice. 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 (PAPSS). Awareness of other trade-facilitation tools also remained limited.
PAPSS is designed to facilitate eligible cross-border payments in African currencies, reducing dependence on hard currencies for intra-African transactions. A payment tool nobody knows about can’t lower anyone’s costs.
The findings concluded that continental trade infrastructure alone may not be enough to increase commerce unless businesses can obtain affordable finance, understand available mechanisms and navigate regulatory and logistical barriers. For Nigeria and other major African economies, 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 report described a continuing 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 affect whether AfCFTA achieves the deeper regional integration its architects envisaged.
Why This Matters:
Trade agreements don’t create trade. Businesses do, and only when financing, payment systems and rules let them. The survey suggests Africa’s executives are ready to expand, with 81.3 per cent expecting more cross-border activity. Yet a $31 billion annual premium on African risk and a $14 billion trade-finance shortfall in just four West African economies show where the real bottleneck sits.
From a market-minded perspective, signing an agreement is the easy part. Delivering predictable rules, accessible credit and tools firms actually know how to use is harder work. That will determine whether AfCFTA becomes a working common market or a framework that outpaces the businesses it was built to serve.