In a compelling public lecture delivered on March 18, 2025 in Accra, Ghana, H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn, current Board Chair of TradeMark Africa and former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, highlighted a major challenge hindering Africa’s economic transformation — the lack of interconnected markets across the continent.
“African markets are not linked,” H.E. Hailemariam stated, emphasizing that despite promising frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), intra-African trade remains disproportionately low compared to trade with external partners.
He pointed out that intra-African trade currently accounts for only 15% of the continent’s total trade, whereas trade within Asia and Europe stands at 58% and 67%, respectively. As a result, African countries continue to trade more with Europe, China, and the United States than with one another. For instance, in 2022, Africa’s trade with Europe reached approximately USD 227 billion, while intra-African exports totaled just USD 84 billion, according to Afreximbank.
To address this imbalance and unlock the continent’s economic potential, His Excellency emphasized the critical role of regional trade integration. “AfCFTA is a powerful tool to realize the African Union’s Agenda 2063,” he mentioned, stressing its potential to boost intra-African trade, promote industrialization, and accelerate infrastructure development as pathways to inclusive and sustainable growth across the continent.
“We must break the silos and build bridges—economic bridges—between our markets, our people, and our future,” he noted, underscoring the importance of improving infrastructure, aligning trade policies, ensuring strong political will, and fostering cross-border value chains to drive regional integration and economic growth. “Trade agreements alone will not create jobs or build industries unless backed by concrete actions and investments,” he added.
Hosted by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and TradeMark Africa, the lecture served as a powerful reminder that Africa’s future prosperity depends not only on national growth strategies but also on a united and integrated continental economy.
