The African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and Africa50 have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to accelerate infrastructure development. This agreement aims to fully leverage the potential of the world’s largest free trade area.
The pact, inked during the Africa50 General Shareholders Meeting in Maputo recently, lays the foundation for a continent-wide push to design, finance and deliver transport, logistics and digital infrastructure capable of knitting together Africa’s fragmented markets.
The urgency is clear: intra-African trade accounts for only 15–18% of the continent’s total trade, compared to 68% in Europe and 59% in Asia. With the AfCFTA single market covering 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion, the agreement is being hailed as a defining step towards Africa’s economic self-determination.
“This is about realizing the full potential of the AfCFTA,” said Solomon Quaynor, AfDB Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure & Industrialization.
“The Bank has invested over $55 billion in nine years across transport, power, and trade corridors. This new agreement consolidates those efforts to truly connect Africa.”
Between 2014 and 2024 alone, the AfDB ploughed $8 billion into 109 cross-border projects, including roads, ports, railways and power pools that now form the arteries of regional commerce. But with the continent’s logistics costs among the highest in the world, policymakers argue that much more is required to break the silos holding African entrepreneurs back.
Africa50 CEO Alain Ebobissé underscored the private sector dimension:
“This agreement strengthens our ability to mobilize innovative financing and crowd in investment for trade-enabling infrastructure. Boosting intra-African trade is one of the continent’s greatest endeavours and entrepreneurs stand to be the biggest winners.”
The partnership will focus on six pillars:
- Aligning infrastructure priorities with the AfCFTA roadmap
- Identifying bankable, cross-border projects
- Mobilizing blended capital at scale
- Embedding ESG standards across projects
- Building robust tracking and monitoring systems
- Driving public-private dialogue for faster execution
Beyond roads and ports, the deal also zeroes in on digital trade platforms and data centres critical assets to ensure African businesses are not left behind in the global digital economy.
For AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, the agreement signals a turning point:
“We face unprecedented challenges, but this is Africa’s wake-up call. Infrastructure is the prerequisite for trade. If we act boldly, we can double intra-African trade to 25% by 2030.”
With timelines and implementation strategies now being drafted, the MoU is expected to galvanize both public and private capital towards a new era of connectivity. For Africa’s entrepreneurs from agritech pioneers to e-commerce innovators the question is no longer if the market can integrate, but how fast.
The continent’s future may well depend on whether this pact turns promises into roads, ports and platforms that make Africa the world’s next great growth story.
