African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) has selected eight startups for the first cohort of its Accelerator Programme, a three month initiative aimed at scaling companies that support intra African trade and industrialization under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The programme, beginning in March 2026, drew more than 1,600 applications from across Africa, the diaspora and the Caribbean, underscoring rising interest in trade focused innovation tied to AfCFTA implementation. Afreximbank announced the finalists on Sunday, February 2, 2026, following business assessments, interviews and pitch sessions overseen by the bank’s trade specialists alongside external experts from the venture capital and innovation ecosystem.
The selected startups operate across sectors including agriculture, e commerce, market access, financial technology, supply chains and manufacturing. Afreximbank said the firms are positioned to address structural trade constraints affecting continental and diaspora markets while supporting export growth and value addition across African economies.
The accelerator will provide equity financing of up to 250,000 dollars through Afreximbank’s impact investment arm, the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), subject to selection criteria and standard investment processes. Finalists will also receive mentorship from investors and trade specialists, as well as access to Afreximbank’s trade facilitation platforms, regulatory pathways and network of government, private sector and multilateral partners.
Participants will take part in virtual learning modules, workshops and in person sessions hosted in Abuja, Nairobi and at Afreximbank headquarters in Cairo. The programme will culminate in a demo day where startups present to investors, policymakers and industry executives, positioning them at the forefront of Africa’s trade development.
Haytham Elmaayergi, Executive Vice President of the Global Trade Bank at Afreximbank, stated that the Accelerator Programme reflects the bank’s belief in the power of innovation to transform intra African trade and underscores the important role that Global Africa’s innovation plays in realizing the promise of the AfCFTA. He described the inaugural cohort as representing the future of African enterprise, noting that Afreximbank is proud to invest in them from vision to scale to nurture solutions needed to unlock trade across Africa, the diaspora and the Caribbean.
The bank said the geographic spread of applications aligns with its strategy to support economic integration beyond the continent, including ties with Caribbean Community (CARICOM) economies, as AfCFTA implementation gathers momentum. Afreximbank has increasingly positioned innovation and early stage capital as tools to close financing and infrastructure gaps that limit cross border trade.
The programme prioritizes solutions from seed to Series A maturity stage and applies a three stage evaluation process combining expert insight, practical business assessment and strategic innovation criteria. Selected participants must demonstrate willingness to travel for in person cohort meetings and demo day, commit to attending weekly virtual sessions, maintain primary focus on African market expansion during the programme duration and provide monthly progress reports.
The AfCFTA entered into force on May 30, 2019, and commenced trading on January 1, 2021. The agreement connects 1.3 billion people across 55 African Union member countries with a combined gross domestic product valued at 3.4 trillion dollars. It aims to create a liberalized single market for goods and services, facilitate investment and enable the movement of people and capital throughout Africa.
Under the agreement, AfCFTA members are committed to eliminating tariffs on most goods and services over periods of five, 10 or 13 years depending on the country’s level of development or the nature of products. The pact aims to remove tariffs from 90 percent of goods initially, eventually allowing free access to at least 97 percent of goods and most services across the African continent.
The World Bank estimates that full implementation of the AfCFTA could lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty and raise the incomes of 68 million others who live on less than 5.50 dollars per day. The agreement has the potential to boost Africa’s income by 450 billion dollars by 2035, representing a seven percent gain, while increasing Africa’s exports by 560 billion dollars, mostly in manufacturing.
However, successful implementation remains key to achieving these outcomes. African trade integration has long been constrained by deteriorating border and transportation systems, as well as a patchwork of unique legislation across dozens of markets. Governments frequently create trade barriers to protect domestic markets from regional competition, making trading with close neighbors more expensive than trading with nations considerably further away.
The Pan African Payments and Settlement System (PAPSS), launched in January 2022, represents a major step toward AfCFTA objectives. The system allows payments among companies operating in Africa to be conducted in any local currency, reducing reliance on hard currencies for intra African trade and lowering transaction costs. Afreximbank developed PAPSS in collaboration with the AfCFTA Secretariat to facilitate payments and formalize some of the unrecorded trade due to prevalence of informal cross border activity.
Afreximbank serves as a key trade finance institution supporting AfCFTA implementation. The bank, headquartered in Cairo, was established in 1993 to finance and facilitate trade across Africa. It holds authorized capital of 9.96 billion dollars and provides trade finance, export development, project finance and other financial services to support African trade and economic integration.
The bank has increasingly positioned itself as a catalyst for innovation led trade development. Beyond the Accelerator Programme, Afreximbank operates various trade facilitation initiatives including the Afreximbank Trade Portal, which provides market intelligence and regulatory information to African businesses seeking to expand across the continent.
Details of the eight selected finalists and programme specifics are available on Afreximbank’s accelerator platform at accelerator programme.afreximbank.com. The bank said it expects to launch subsequent cohorts as the programme evolves, building a sustainable ecosystem for trade led development across Africa and Global Africa markets.
The programme reflects broader efforts by continental institutions to address financing gaps constraining African entrepreneurship. Despite the continent’s young, growing population and increasing digital connectivity, African startups attracted only 3.5 billion dollars in venture capital funding in 2024, down from 4.6 billion dollars in 2023, according to industry data. This compares to over 170 billion dollars invested in United States startups and 65 billion dollars in European startups during the same period.
Trade focused startups face particular challenges including complex regulatory environments, currency volatility, cross border payment infrastructure limitations and fragmented markets. The Accelerator Programme aims to address these constraints by combining capital, mentorship and direct access to Afreximbank’s institutional network spanning government stakeholders, private sector players and multilateral partners across 54 African countries and the diaspora.
As AfCFTA implementation progresses through its operational phase, continental institutions increasingly recognize that achieving the agreement’s ambitious objectives requires not only policy reforms and infrastructure development but also a new generation of innovative enterprises capable of building the platforms, technologies and business models that will power intra African commerce.
