27 August 2025 – The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) has released a new paper The AfCFTA Imperative: From Vision to Impact providing Africa’s leadership with an actionable roadmap to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and drive economic transformation.

The paper builds on TBI’s previous publication Africa First: A New Vision for Africa’s Growth and US Engagement, which called on African leaders to prioritise homegrown solutions including the AfCFTA as they navigate rising debt, the rollback of global cooperation and a decline in traditional aid flows. This new paper focuses on how the AfCFTA can become a reality uniting 55 countries into a single market of 1.4 billion people. 

The paper calls for leaders to move from high-level commitments to coordinated practical delivery of the AfCFTA focusing on scaling trade facilitation, investing in digital and physical infrastructure and aligning industrial policy across borders.  

Key points from the paper 

• The AfCFTA is one of the most ambitious economic-integration projects ever seen, which will unlock Africa’s full market potential, accelerate industrialisation and reduce dependence on external markets.  

• Current challenges to trade between African countries include manual customs systems, weak national statistical systems, infrastructure gaps, fragile bureaucracies, fear of regional competition and lack of funds. 

• Countries now need to shift to the implementation of the 40 plus AfCFTA Strategies that have been formulated to grow trade across the continent. 

• According to the World Bank, the full implementation of the AfCFTA could boost regional income by more than $450 billion by 2035 and lift tens of millions out of poverty. Intra-African trade currently accounts for less than 17 per cent of total exports. 

The report presents four policy actions to guide African governments in implementing the AfCFTA which should be sequenced, costed and grounded in realistic timelines.  

1. Prioritise Practical Trade Facilitation: Improve trade facilitation across borders including better inter-governmental coordination, expanding simplified trade regimes and providing basic infrastructure. Invest in data platforms, joint infrastructure and harmonised standards along high trade volume corridors. 

2. Build Africa’s Digital Backbone: Scaling digital systems by introducing shared, interoperable infrastructure like the new AfCFTA digital public infrastructure for trade initiative that aims to create open, interoperable digital public infrastructure and ecosystems for trade.  

3. Infrastructure for Trade: Ensure coordinated investment, planning and harmonization in infrastructure such as cross-border transport and energy systems, including rail links, harmonised road corridors and interconnected power grids. 

4. Aligning Industrial Policy Across Borders: Accelerate industrialisation by developing regional value chains such as regional battery value chains. 

TBI’s Global Lead on Trade and Infrastructure and one of the paper’s authors, Frank Matsaert said: “The AfCFTA is one of Africa’s most important levers for building economic resilience and industrial transformation.  With the right focus and leadership, the AfCFTA can move from aspiration to action, delivering the kind of growth and integration the continent needs now more than ever.”