Intra-continental trade hits $220 billion, reshaping economic opportunity across Africa

Africa’s intra-continental trade surged past $220 billion last year, and the momentum behind that figure is reshaping how the continent’s citizens experience economic life. More than 140 business leaders, policymakers and entrepreneurs gathered in Cape Town this week for the Standard Bank Africa Unlocked 2026 conference to examine how that growth can be sustained and deepened in the face of mounting global obstacles, and what it means for ordinary Africans.

The public stakes are direct. Bill Blackie, chief executive for business and commercial banking at Standard Bank Group, told delegates on Thursday that Africa is expected to grow at approximately 4% this year, with trade between African nations climbing by more than 12% in 2025. That internal momentum carries real consequences for employment, access to goods and the quality of services that citizens depend on. Blackie noted that his bank’s business clients are now trading more with each other across the continent than with any single external partner, including China, the United States or the European Union. “Their most important trade partner is each other,” he said, describing this as “a shift which matters and reflecting something structural rather than cyclical.”

Forty-seven countries are now part of the African Continental Free Trade Area, making it the largest free trade area by number of participants anywhere in the world. Pension assets across Africa have exceeded $1 trillion, a sign of deepening financial capacity that could eventually widen access to credit and services for broader populations.

The global environment, by contrast, remains turbulent. US tariffs have reached their highest levels in more than a century. Conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt energy flows and shipping routes. The multilateral trading system itself is under strain. Against these headwinds, the conference theme “Built in Africa: Amplifying Continental Growth” reflects a deliberate pivot toward homegrown solutions and African-led enterprise, with direct implications for job creation and economic security across the continent.

Concrete examples show what that pivot looks like for working people. Hungry Lion, a fast-food chain, set an ambition two years ago to open 100 stores annually across Africa. That goal has materialized. The company has already opened more than 500 stores across nine countries, employing 10,000 people, and is on track to open 250 more this year, bringing the total to 750 by year-end. Each store represents jobs, local supply chains and accessible services for communities that host them.

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos illustrates a similar multiplier effect. Hundreds of suppliers, contractors and logistics operators form an ecosystem around the facility, extending its economic impact well beyond a single company. Standard Bank’s team in Nigeria has supported 300 businesses in the Dangote value chain with the financial solutions needed to sustain the refinery’s operations. That ecosystem approach, Blackie argued, allows financial institutions to accompany clients through their entire journey, from initial working capital needs to cross-border expansion and access to global capital, with benefits that ripple outward to workers and communities along the chain.

African businesses are also renegotiating their terms of engagement with major trading partners. Rather than serving as raw material exporters, they are increasingly positioning themselves as value-added partners with China, India and the Gulf states. That repositioning, if it holds, could translate into higher-skilled employment and greater domestic processing of resources that have historically left the continent unrefined.

Lungisa Fuzile, Standard Bank’s chief executive for Africa Regions Offshore, told the gathering that the conference offered “a moment to pause, reflect and focus on what truly matters.” He identified job creation, energy, infrastructure development and governance as the themes shaping Africa’s future, and stressed that tangible progress is now visible: infrastructure projects completed and commissioned, governance frameworks strengthened and Africans taking charge of their own destiny.

Fuzile pointed to the entrepreneurs assembled at the conference as evidence of the continent’s capacity to deliver for its citizens. “Africa’s greatest resource is not only its natural resources but its talented people,” he said. “Talent that rises despite the noise, courage that stands firm in the face of uncertainty and hope that returns with every new dawn.” He described the bank’s role not as creator but as amplifier, tasked with picking up the signal of entrepreneurial talent and making it strong by providing skills, connections and capital.

The two-day conference, now in its third edition, reflects how Africa’s economic narrative has evolved. What was once framed primarily through the lens of external investment and resource extraction is increasingly centered on internal trade, African capital and homegrown innovation. Whether the infrastructure pipeline and energy transition ambitions underpinning that shift can deliver broad public benefits, including affordable energy, reliable transport and expanded employment, remains the defining question for the citizens whose daily lives the numbers ultimately describe.