Business leaders and trade officials gathering to discuss implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area have placed port and transport corridor infrastructure at the top of the investment agenda, arguing that tariff reductions alone will not unlock the trade growth the agreement envisions without matching logistics capacity.
Panels at the gathering focused on financing models for port expansion and inland corridor upgrades, with several speakers pointing to blended public-private financing as the most realistic path given the scale of investment required.
Participants broadly agreed that ports in Tema, Lagos, Abidjan, Mombasa and Durban will need to coordinate more closely on standards and data sharing if the continent is to realise the full benefit of reduced intra-African tariffs.