The Pan-African Manufacturers Association (PAMA) has said Afreximbank’s Africa Trade Gateway (ATG) platform is tackling Africa’s trade hurdles head-on.
By blending trade finance, guarantees, digital payments, and settlement via the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), ATG promises lower costs and greater reliability for SMEs and mid-sized manufacturers.
In its January 2026 News Bulletin, PAMA spotlighted Africa’s marginal role in global trade—despite its vast resources and youth—where intra-African exports account for less than 20% of total exports. African firms face steep finance and settlement fees due to fragmented systems relying on costly external middlemen.
PAMA noted that past fixes, such as credit lines and customs reforms, failed to account for how bottlenecks interact, thereby keeping transaction costs high.
“ATG marks a significant shift by addressing these interconnected challenges,” the bulletin stated, enabling seamless transactions without multiple intermediaries.
This move aims to reduce costs and increase predictability for African businesses, particularly SMEs and mid-sized manufacturers.
Despite the continent’s wealth of resources, youthful demographics, and strategic position between major global markets, it remains on the periphery of world trade and is weakly integrated internally.
It stated that intra-African trade accounts for less than one-fifth of total exports and that African firms often face some of the highest trade finance and settlement costs.
According to the report, this challenge is not due to a lack of vision or policy determination; rather, it stems from deeper structural issues. The trade ecosystem in Africa has developed in a fragmented way, with finance, payments, logistics, information, and risk management operating in isolation. This often leads to external intermediation that disadvantages African companies, especially small and mid-sized enterprises.
“For decades, initiatives aimed at bolstering African trade have concentrated on individual constraints such as credit lines, export incentives, and customs reforms. However, these efforts often overlook how the various frictions interact. Even as one bottleneck is resolved, others can persist, maintaining high transaction costs and contributing to an environment of uncertainty.
“The Afreximbank’s ATG platform marks a significant shift by addressing these interconnected challenges. By integrating trade finance, guarantees, digital payments, and settlement into the PAPSS, ATG aims to reduce costs cumulatively rather than make incremental changes. For businesses, particularly SMEs and mid-sized manufacturers, this integration offers enhanced predictability and reliability, making trade more viable when financing, payment, and delivery risks are aligned.”
PAMA explained that “by internalising critical trade functions like payments, guarantees, and risk mitigation within a continent-wide framework, ATG can help rebalance this structure. The macroeconomic benefits could be substantial, including easing pressure on foreign reserves, lowering transaction costs, and facilitating export diversification into more manufactured and semi-processed goods.”
It said that “in considering ATG as a Connected Ecosystem, it is important to recognise that trade requires multiple components to work harmoniously, access to markets, dependable partners, market intelligence, financing, logistics, and secure payments. By connecting these elements on a single platform, ATG enables businesses to complete transactions seamlessly without having to navigate multiple systems or intermediaries.”
It further added that the launch of the ATG coincides with the establishment of the AfCFTA, which has created a continental regulatory framework, the increasing fragmentation of global trade, which raises the risks of reliance on external markets, and Africa’s growing industrial ambitions that demand dependable market access.
PAMA disclosed that looking ahead to the potential for sustainable infrastructure with ATG, it is clear that the platform has made commendable progress in establishing an interconnected trade ecosystem.
SOURCE: LEADERSHIP NEWS PAPER
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