Nigeria’s AfCFTA journey stalls at borders and ports. In this edition of Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS, REMMY NWEKE spotlights delays, bribes, and weak infrastructure trapping traders, exposing the gulf between continental ambition and daily reality.
Introduction:
On a humid morning at the Seme border, truck drivers wait in queues that snake for kilometers, their cargo stranded by customs checks, levies, and unexplained delays. Among them is 42-year-old rice trader, Chidi Nwosu, who resides in Ogun State.
On a humid morning at the Seme border, truck drivers wait in queues that snake for kilometers, their cargo stranded by customs checks, levies, and unexplained delays. Among them is 42-year-old rice trader, Chidi Nwosu, who resides in Ogun State.
His plan was simple: ferry bags of rice to Cotonou and return with fertilizer for the next planting season. What should have been a four-hour trip often stretches into three days. For Chidi, the promise of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a borderless market of 1.4 billion people, remains more aspiration than reality.
Converting weight into trade influence:
Nigeria entered AfCFTA in 2019 after months of hesitation. Advocates hailed the move as a chance for Africa’s largest economy to dominate regional trade, diversify away from oil dependence, and access a market worth over US$3.4 trillion.
But years later, the numbers tell another story. Nigeria’s exports to Africa remain low, dwarfed by South Africa’s diversified output and even by Ghana’s smoother AfCFTA implementation. While Nigeria controls the continent’s largest population, it has yet to convert that weight into meaningful trade influence.
The gap is most evident among smallholders and entrepreneurs. In Kwara State, a cooperative of women who produce shea butter receives regular inquiries from Ghanaian retailers. Yet their dream of expansion is stalled by certification bottlenecks and poor logistics. In Kogi, cashew farmers complain that moving produce to Apapa port costs nearly as much as growing it, thanks to bad roads and congestion. Across the agro value chain , from cocoa and rice to sesame and fishery products , Nigeria’s potential under AfCFTA remains vast but untapped.
Multiple checkpoints as barriers:
The barriers are as much political as they are logistical. Traders describe a gauntlet of checkpoints where bribes are the only language understood. Border closures, such as the one imposed between 2019 and 2020 ostensibly to curb smuggling, crippled thousands of small businesses while leaving AfCFTA’s spirit in limbo.
At Apapa, containers pile up for weeks as exporters wait for clearance. Policy inconsistency has only deepened the distrust. Sudden import bans and shifting tariffs confuse not just foreign partners but also Nigerian traders trying to plan their next move. Analysts estimate that Nigeria loses billions annually to these inefficiencies, eroding the very benefits AfCFTA was designed to unlock.
Nigeria entered AfCFTA in 2019 after months of hesitation. Advocates hailed the move as a chance for Africa’s largest economy to dominate regional trade, diversify away from oil dependence, and access a market worth over US$3.4 trillion.
But years later, the numbers tell another story. Nigeria’s exports to Africa remain low, dwarfed by South Africa’s diversified output and even by Ghana’s smoother AfCFTA implementation. While Nigeria controls the continent’s largest population, it has yet to convert that weight into meaningful trade influence.
Multiple checkpoints as barriers:
The barriers are as much political as they are logistical. Traders describe a gauntlet of checkpoints where bribes are the only language understood. Border closures, such as the one imposed between 2019 and 2020 ostensibly to curb smuggling, crippled thousands of small businesses while leaving AfCFTA’s spirit in limbo.
At Apapa, containers pile up for weeks as exporters wait for clearance. Policy inconsistency has only deepened the distrust. Sudden import bans and shifting tariffs confuse not just foreign partners but also Nigerian traders trying to plan their next move. Analysts estimate that Nigeria loses billions annually to these inefficiencies, eroding the very benefits AfCFTA was designed to unlock.
Weakening AfCFTA credibility:
In contrast, Ghana has moved faster, launching a comprehensive AfCFTA strategy, training SMEs, and digitizing customs. Morocco and Kenya, ITREALMS gathered, have carved niches as reliable exporters of manufactured goods, while Nigeria’s position remains fragile.
Experts from World Trade Organisation (WTO), United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and Afreximbank warned that if Nigeria fails to lead, the credibility of the entire AfCFTA project is weakened. With Africa’s largest economy dragging its feet, the continental dream risks becoming a patchwork of uneven progress.
The human cost is visible in stories like Chidi’s. Every delayed trip means lost customers and wasted goods. In Lagos, textile exporters reportedly pay up to 40 percent more in logistics costs compared to their peers in Accra.
Informal traders, mostly women, at Idiroko or Jibia borders recount tales of harassment, intimidation, and confiscated wares. For them, AfCFTA is not an abstract policy but the difference between survival and collapse.
Railways with critical gap:
Yet signs of hope are emerging. Ongoing rail rehabilitation from Lagos to Kano, with eventual links to Niger Republic, could reduce road dependence.
The human cost is visible in stories like Chidi’s. Every delayed trip means lost customers and wasted goods. In Lagos, textile exporters reportedly pay up to 40 percent more in logistics costs compared to their peers in Accra.
Railways with critical gap:
Yet signs of hope are emerging. Ongoing rail rehabilitation from Lagos to Kano, with eventual links to Niger Republic, could reduce road dependence.
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council has stepped up training for SMEs, preparing them for cross-border trade with standardized documentation.
Technology platforms are springing up to connect farmers directly with regional buyers, bypassing some of the bottlenecks.
Nigeria @crossroads:
Still, a critical gap remains: the South-East, Nigeria’s traditional hub of commerce and small-scale industry, remains conspicuously unconnected to the new rail blueprints. For a region whose traders dominate domestic distribution networks and whose entrepreneurs sustain export-facing clusters in Aba, Nnewi, and Onitsha, this omission carries real costs.
Without seamless rail integration, South-Eastern businesses are forced to rely on crumbling highways, higher logistics charges, and informal routes that weaken their competitiveness under AfCFTA.
Political will of inclusivity:
These sparks suggest that with the right political will, and with inclusivity in infrastructure planning, Nigeria could still reposition itself as AfCFTA’s anchor. Experts agreed on the road ahead.
Nigeria must modernize borders and ports, digitize customs processes, and align trade policies with AfCFTA protocols. Small and medium enterprises, especially women-led ventures, require targeted financing and export support. Without these reforms, Nigeria risks being sidelined in a market it helped to create.
Giant with feet of clay:
Nigeria today stands at a defining moment. Its size, population, and entrepreneurial base position it as the natural leader of Africa’s single market.
But unless it breaks free from inefficiencies and policy contradictions, it may become a giant with feet of clay, overshadowed by nimbler neighbours.
For Chidi and millions of farmers, traders, and manufacturers, AfCFTA is not just a diplomatic talking point. It is the difference between poverty and prosperity, survival and growth.
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