The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) promises to increase intra-Africa trade significantly through creating a free market in the continent. It aims to do so by eliminating barriers to trade in all sectors, with a focus on value-added production. The AfCFTA will create a single continental market for goods and services, remove tariffs on 90% of goods, reduce non-tariff barriers, and improve trade facilitation. Launched in January 2021 under Agenda 2063, it is the world’s largest free trade area by number of countries (54 out of 55).
Even as the AfCFTA is expected to increase trade flow between African countries and enhance economic resilience by lifting 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035 (World Bank 2022), there are questions to be probed around its inclusivity and equitability as its implementation progresses. In this blog, we dive deeper into this, especially from the lens of gender inclusivity—an issue that the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) is actively working on.
AfCFTA and gender inclusivity
The African Union, UN Women Africa and the World Economic Forum (WEF) report that women dominate Africa’s informal cross-border trade, making up to 70% of informal traders in some regions. Although these women are primarily small-scale operators, they play a vital role in Africa’s informal economy—connecting supply chains and supporting their families and communities. Yet, as the World Economic Forum notes, citing a UNDP study Engine of Trade in Africa, they remain excluded from trade governance and lack a voice in decision-making.
What it means in the case of AfCFTA is that although reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers can lower costs for women traders and improve market access, they face significant challenges when it comes to accessing technology, finance, and infrastructure. They also lack knowledge of market opportunities and have little or no awareness of AfCFTA, its provisions and how it impacts their trading activities. The digital divide in particular can increase inequality rather than reduce it if not addressed proactively. This is further exacerbated by the fact that most of the “(informal) structures that women rely on, such as cooperatives, trader associations, community credit groups and so on—remain fragmented, underfunded and largely excluded from AfCFTA’s formal mechanisms”, as the WEF article highlights.
Additionally, female small-scale traders often face harassment and corruption at border posts (refer to case study at the Ghana-Togo border in this 2025 policy brief by Africa Labour Research and Education Institute), and end up paying bribes, primarily due to lack of information and knowledge about procedures. Large centralized bureaucratic set-ups for obtaining certifications and permissions further obfuscate the process. Limited access to and representation of women in professional networks and the marginalization of their voice in the development of the AfCFTA(again refer to the report Engine of Trade in Africa) has deepened the accessibility challenge despite the intended benefits of the framework.
It can, therefore, be concluded that that there is room for greater gender inclusivity in the implementation of AfCTA so that it delivers effectively on its promise of shared prosperity for all, especially for women traders. Measures to ensure this have been identified and are underway. These include several recommendations made by various actors on how the AfCFTA can be made more gender inclusive, as explained in the next section.
How can women’s voices be heard in the AfCFTA?
The AfCFTA Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade – In response to the gaps identified, the AfCFTA Secretariat and African Union primarily committed to mainstreaming gender into AfCFTA’s implementation. The 2024 AfCFTA Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade, which focuses on removing discrimination as well as promoting access, equity and protection was the outcome of these efforts. It provides for affirmative action, necessary policy and legal reforms, capacity building and technical assistance measures, as well as institutional arrangements for monitoring and evaluation.
Capacity building for women and enabling them to leverage AfcFTA – Lack of access to markets, finance, technology and an understanding of the provisions of AfCFTA have been identified as key barriers to small scale women traders’ participation, as mentioned above. To address these, there have been successful pilots like the UNDP’s HerAfCFTA Initiative, which has adopted a holistic model of capacity building, providing access to markets, business networking and digitalization for women owned MSMEs in Nigeria, among other measures, which can serve as a model for replication. Similarly, the Guided Trade Initiative, which has initiated commercially significant trade between eight countries has notable success stories from Rwanda and Ghana of women entrepreneurs leveraging AfCFTA to expand their business as a result of targeted government support, access to finance, and inclusive trade facilitation.
Further, digital inclusion to ensure that small scale women traders can truly benefit from the bold vision of AfCFTA must include sensitization and training in digital literacy that is context specific in addition to facilitating access to digital infrastructure (UNECA, 2021). For instance, women traders need to be empowered to use mobile phones, which most of them possess, for business purposes, such as making digital payments or applying for digital credit, among other uses.
Simplifying processes – Other important measures include simplifying the cumbersome customs processes considering gender specific constraints and barriers especially for women led MSMEs; targeted credit schemes for women traders (World Trade Organization, 2022); and ensuring collection of gender disaggregated data (UNCTAD 2021) to inform inclusive policymaking effectively.
Conclusion
While the Protocol is a step forward to make the AfCFTA more gender inclusive, it is not binding as it requires sustained and positive action from members to realize its goals. It is also separate from AfCFTA’s core legal instruments. Therefore, drawing on the arguments in this blog, it remains aspirational as its operational impact remains limited without formalizing the inclusion of women trader’s voices, especially those from the grassroots.
Continue to watch this space for more on AfCFTA and the realization of the promise it holds for the continent.
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