A latest report from Standard Chartered has revealed that Africa is well-positioned to leverage cloud, Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), digital Economy Agreements (DEAs), and strategic partnerships to leapfrog into a more digital, inclusive trade system.
The analysis titled Future of Trade: Digitalisation surveyed 1,200 C-Suite and senior leaders at multinational corporations with annual revenue of over $250 million from 17 key markets; including Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria, for their input on global trade and strategies to build resilience over the next three to five years.
One of the key findings was that across all regions surveyed; 77% of respondents in Africa and the Middle East (AME) listed cloud computing among their top three digitalisation drivers.
This focus is linked to regional initiatives to build digital skills and infrastructure, 59% of corporates cite regulatory barriers as their top obstacle to trade digitalisation, while 57% name implementation challenges (skills, capacity, infrastructure, costs) as a major barrier to their digitalisation initiatives.
Nigeria emerged as the Digital Trade Champion under the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol and has implemented several policies and frameworks to develop digital skills and infrastructure.
Nonetheless, it cautions: “Progress on the continent is hindered by systemic challenges, such as regulatory barriers, reflecting the diversity of regulatory regimes. Coupled with a lack of universal standards, this creates integration problems between different digital platforms. In addition, adopting modern technologies requires significant resources, which can be a constraint.”
It also highlighted that 41% of corporates in AME rated DEAs as the most important component as they set up shared rules for secure and inclusive digital trade, including e-commerce, payments, data flows, cybersecurity, and digital identity.
According to the company, the emphasis on DEAs underscores a strong regional consensus that cross-border regulatory alignment is essential to overcoming market fragmentation.
"Simultaneously, cross-industry partnerships between banks, fintechs, providers, and regulators are building the infrastructure for data, trust, and value to move seamlessly across borders.
"As these ecosystems converge, collaboration is shifting from a support function to a growth strategy, powering resilience and innovation,” explained Michael Spiegel, global head of Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered.
The report further suggests that the core challenge for the region is not a lack of willingness, but fragmented infrastructure and regulation.
The multitude of markets, rules and systems creates an environment where achieving the scale and standardisation needed for seamless digital trade is challenging. African corporates see DEAs and strategic partnerships as critical solutions to these issues.
Share
