A new study from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) finds Africa gains more from reforms that help exporters move goods across borders than from similar changes on the import side.
The paper used trade data spanning 2007 to 2020 and built four composite measures of trade facilitation, covering physical infrastructure, information and communications technology (ICT), business regulations and border procedures, using a statistical technique called principal component analysis. Applying a structural gravity model to intra-African agri-food trade, the researchers found that all four measures produced statistically significant gains in exporting countries, with better roads, ports and airports delivering the biggest boost, followed by ICT improvements. On the import side, only two of the four measures showed a significant effect, suggesting that fixing bottlenecks at the border alone does little to move regional trade if the exporting country’s own systems remain weak.
The report points to research by Sakyi and Afesorgbor from 2019 to help explain the gap, arguing that most African governments have built their trade policies around export promotion rather than import facilitation, a bias reflected in the export strategies many countries have adopted over the years.
That imbalance carries a practical lesson for governments implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Much of the continent’s recent trade policy effort has gone into cutting tariffs, but the study argues bigger returns are likely to come from upgrading export infrastructure, digitising customs systems and cutting the time and paperwork needed to move goods across borders.
The strongest results in the study came when trading partners moved together. Countries that improved infrastructure, border efficiency and their business environment at the same time as their trading partners saw larger trade gains than those that acted alone, the researchers found, pointing to coordinated reform rather than unilateral action as the more effective route to boosting regional commerce.
The findings add weight to calls for faster implementation of the AfCFTA’s trade facilitation agenda, particularly investment in transport corridors and the harmonisation of customs procedures across the continent, steps the researchers describe as central to lifting intra-African agricultural trade and strengthening food security.
