With its natural resources, agricultural potential, national markets, and strategic geographic position, Central Africa holds considerable assets. Yet its economies remain weakly integrated. Intra-regional trade remains limited, transport infrastructure is insufficient, and logistics costs continue to undermine the competitiveness of businesses.
From continental agreement to regional reality
AfCFTA opens up a market of more than 1.4 billion consumers to African economies, with a combined GDP estimated at close to $3.4 trillion. Its ambition is to gradually reduce trade barriers, boost intra-African trade, and foster the emergence of value chains capable of crossing national borders. For Central Africa, the potential is particularly significant. The region includes Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Equatorial Guinea—economies with different profiles but a shared heavy dependence on commodity exports.
Turning complementarity into a trade strength
The real challenge now is to turn this complementarity into a trade strength. Timber from Gabon or Congo, cotton from Chad and the Central African Republic, Cameroonian agricultural products, and the region’s hydrocarbons and minerals could increasingly feed regional processing chains rather than being exported mainly in raw form to outside markets.
Central africa still trades too little within its own borders
The central paradox lies here: the region has substantial resources but still struggles to turn them into dynamic regional trade. In Cameroon, for example, exports to other African countries stood at 379 billion FCFA in 2023, just 12.7% of the country’s export revenue. Imports from the continent, meanwhile, reached 476.2 billion FCFA, resulting in a 97.2 billion FCFA deficit with African partners.
This situation illustrates a broader problem for Central Africa: geographic proximity alone is not enough to generate trade. Businesses still have to contend with customs barriers, transport difficulties, high logistics costs, administrative procedures, and inadequate cross-border infrastructure.
Building value chains at the central african scale
One of the major challenges of AfCFTA for the region will be precisely to move beyond the logic of competition between national economies. Central Africa could gradually build regional value chains in which several countries successively participate in producing the same good.
Cotton grown in Chad or the Central African Republic could, for example, increasingly supply regional processing capacity. Timber produced in Gabon or Congo could be processed in sub-regional industrial units before being sold across the continent. Cameroonian agricultural products could supply neighboring markets, while logistics and port infrastructure could facilitate their redistribution. AfCFTA could thus become a tool for regional industrialization—provided countries manage to coordinate their industrial and trade policies.
The border challenge
But before building these value chains, trade first needs to flow more smoothly. In 2024, Cameroon’s informal cross-border trade with its neighbors showed a deficit of 50.72 billion FCFA. The country recorded surpluses with Chad and the Central African Republic, while its deficit with Nigeria exceeded 111 billion FCFA. Beyond the figures, this data reveals substantial cross-border trade activity that does not always pass through formal channels.
For Central Africa, effectively implementing AfCFTA will therefore need to go hand in hand with simplifying customs procedures, better interconnecting administrative systems, more efficient border posts, and lower transport costs. Infrastructure is just as critical. Roads, railways, ports, logistics platforms, and digital networks form the physical infrastructure of the African market.
A window to reduce dependence on raw materials
For Central Africa, the stakes are above all strategic. Dependence on exports of oil, minerals, timber, and other raw materials exposes regional economies to fluctuations in international prices. AfCFTA potentially offers another model: using the continental market as an outlet for processed goods.
World Bank projections point in this direction. Deep implementation of AfCFTA could drive a significant rise in intra-African exports by 2035, including a potential 134% increase in manufactured goods exports and 80% for agriculture and agrifood products. For the sub-region, these prospects represent as many opportunities as challenges.
The Yaoundé seminar also highlights another reality: AfCFTA will not automatically create exporters. To benefit from the continental market, Central African economies must first have a sufficiently large, diversified, and competitive productive base. Put simply, AfCFTA will not be won on paper, but on the roads, at the borders, in the factories, and within businesses.
