As African governments push to accelerate economic integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area, persistent structural barriers continue to limit the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises to benefit from the continent’s flagship trade initiative.
The challenges facing SMEs came into sharp focus at the 2026 Africa Prosperity Dialogues, where the Executive Chairman of the McDan Group of Companies, Mr Daniel McKorley, warned that without deliberate action to remove long-standing bottlenecks, AfCFTA risks falling short of its promise for the businesses that form the backbone of African economies.
Mr McKorley, a businessman and philanthropist, identified logistical inefficiencies as a major constraint on intra African trade, particularly for smaller firms with limited capital buffers. He cited high transport costs, protracted border delays and inconsistent customs procedures across countries as factors that continue to raise the cost of doing business across borders.
“If SMEs cannot trade across borders, AfCFTA will remain a beautiful document rather than a living marketplace,” he said, stressing that continental trade agreements must be backed by practical interventions that make it easier for businesses to move goods and services.
The concerns raised reflect the everyday realities of many African entrepreneurs. In northern Ghana, coffee traders say delays at border posts and unpredictable transport charges frequently eat into already thin margins, making regional expansion financially risky. Similar frustrations are reported by apparel exporters in Kigali, Rwanda, who face varying regulatory requirements across neighbouring markets that complicate planning and increase compliance costs.
These experiences, analysts say, point to a deeper structural problem within Africa’s trade ecosystem. While AfCFTA has established a broad policy framework for market access, inadequate transport infrastructure and fragmented logistics networks continue to undermine its implementation, particularly for SMEs that lack the scale to absorb additional costs.
Trade experts note that inefficiencies along key transport corridors and border posts can add days or even weeks to delivery timelines, raising prices and weakening competitiveness. For many small businesses, these delays serve as a deterrent to cross border trade, forcing them to remain focused on domestic markets despite regional demand opportunities.
Against this backdrop, Mr McKorley and other participants at the Africa Prosperity Dialogues called for targeted investments in infrastructure and logistics to support SME participation in continental trade. Proposals highlighted included improving road and port connectivity, harmonising customs procedures and deploying digital systems to speed up clearance processes.
There were also calls for stronger collaboration between governments and the private sector to ensure that reforms reflect the realities faced by businesses on the ground.
Stakeholders warned that without such coordinated action, many SMEs could remain excluded from AfCFTA driven growth, widening the gap between policy ambition and economic outcomes.
As AfCFTA moves from negotiation to implementation, the extent to which these structural barriers are addressed may determine whether the agreement delivers inclusive growth or remains, as critics caution, an underutilised framework with limited impact on Africa’s vast SME sector.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh