If you build it, they will trade: Why Africa’s single market must centre women traders

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – a 2018 trade agreement to establish an African single market – could unlock $450 billion in regional income and lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035, according to the World Bank. But such expectations remain largely aspirational for the millions of women who already make up an estimated 70% of informal cross-border trade in regions like West and Central Africa.

Women have long driven cross-border trade in Africa. They sustain entire communities by moving goods across borders, ensuring food security and stitching regional supply chains together in the formal economy's shadows. But their visibility in trade does not translate into a voice in trade governance. Very few women have the institutional mechanisms that could help them transition into formal, scaleable trade. And the structures they rely on – cooperatives, trader associations, community credit groups and so on – remain fragmented, underfunded and largely excluded from AfCFTA’s formal mechanisms.

The repercussions of this disconnect are not merely institutional. They shape the daily realities of women traders in Africa. Across the continent, these women face entrenched challenges, including routine harassment at border posts, limited control over assets and restricted mobility. Business owners struggle to access finance, due to limited credit histories, a lack of collateral and complex regulatory requirements. These conditions make scaling their businesses impossible, as highlighted by a 2024 report by the International Finance Corporation.

These conditions are compounded by poor access to reliable trade information. A 2022 UNDP survey found that more than half of women-owned businesses were only slightly aware of AfCFTA or its benefits. This disconnect between women’s economic contributions and their marginalization from policy spaces reinforces a core problem: the systems built to expand trade are not designed with women in mind.

AfCFTA’s success depends on high-level agreements as well as the effectiveness of trade institutions in translating policy into practice. But across the continent, these institutions are often blind to the specific realities of women in trade. This institutional blind spot threatens to leave behind the very demographic that sustains Africa’s informal trade economy.

In many countries, trade institutions are under-resourced, disconnected from informal and semi-formal economies and ill-equipped to serve women traders in Africa. Institutional capacity gaps are among the most significant barriers to AfCFTA implementation, according to a 2022 report by the African Union – especially in lower-income countries where women’s participation in trade is highest.

These gaps are not gender-neutral. Many institutions lack the mandate, training infrastructure or staff to educate women on critical trade mechanisms such as rules of origin, digital customs systems or dispute resolution. The result is a policy environment in which women are often left to navigate opaque and shifting trade regimes alone.

Specifically, the grassroots structures that women traders in Africa depend on – cooperatives, savings groups, cross-border informal networks and local market associations – are routinely excluded from national and regional consultations. These institutions, though central to the survival and resilience of millions of women trading across Africa, remain invisible within AfCFTA’s governance architecture. This exclusion prevents women traders from shaping the policies that govern their economic participation and disconnects continental trade frameworks from the lived realities of cross-border exchange.

While AfCFTA's 2024 Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade codifies commitments to access, equity and protection, its operational impact remains limited. It recognizes gender inclusion but stops short of institutionalizing the voices and experiences of those at the grassroots. No formal mechanisms exist to ensure these women-led groups are represented in decision-making bodies or implementation processes.

The protocol’s language is also aspirational rather than binding, which allows for inaction. For example, Article 19 establishes a Committee on Women and Youth in Trade but fails to specify how it will engage, consult or represent grassroots organizations. Further, the separation of the protocol from AfCFTA’s core legal instruments limits its transformative potential. These gaps allow the protocol to make rhetorical commitments while excluding the very actors who carry the weight of trade on the continent.

The AfCFTA presents a bold vision for continental economic transformation. However, its credibility does not only hinge on intergovernmental consensus or policy blueprints. It also depends on its capacity to empower the grassroots institutions that drive Africa’s real economy: micro, small and medium enterprises, cooperatives and informal cross-border traders.

To move from symbolic inclusion to structural empowerment, AfCFTA must reconfigure around the realities of grassroots trade. This should begin with strategic investment in grassroots trade networks, particularly cooperatives and associations representing women-led enterprises and small traders. These actors should be prioritized for capacity-building, export-readiness programmes, affordable finance and legal support for formalization and market access.

Second, representation must be institutionalized, not incidental. Grassroots and women-led organizations should have reserved seats in AfCFTA decision-making bodies. Mandated consultation mechanisms such as local trade forums, participatory monitoring and grievance redress systems must be embedded into implementation structures.

Digital inclusion is another foundational pillar. Bridging the digital divide requires more than infrastructure; it demands context-responsive strategies. This should include digital literacy training in local languages, mobile-first customs and e-commerce tools, and subsidized platforms that support market access for small traders. These solutions must be co-designed with the people they aim to serve.

Where models exist, they must be scaled. Successful pilots like UNDP’s HerAfCFTA in Nigeria and Ghana have shown what is possible when women traders are equipped with tailored training, policy access and digital tools. These initiatives should inform a continental strategy for gender-responsive trade governance.

Finally, AfCFTA must adopt a leadership model that reflects the constituencies it claims to serve. Under Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s leadership, the World Trade Organization has prioritized gender in global trade through initiatives like Trade&Gender 360°, which combine policy training with institutional accountability. A similar commitment to gender-inclusive leadership is essential for AfCFTA’s legitimacy.

For the millions of women already shaping Africa’s trading landscape through informal and grassroots networks, the question is not whether they are ready for AfCFTA – the real question is whether AfCFTA is ready to support them. Centring women’s trade institutions is not just a matter of equity, it’s a strategic imperative for sustainable, inclusive growth.

AfCFTA’s success should not be measured by ratification counts, but by whether it can shift institutional power from distant trade bureaucracies into the hands of the people who trade every day. It must help grassroots actors transition from being bystanders to builders of Africa’s trade future.