Over the past year, the Promoting Intra‑Africa Trade Series has explored the continent’s shifting economic landscape from the slow, inevitable decline of aid dependency to the fast rising logic of trade, enterprise and regional value creation. The articles examined the sectors where Africa holds both comparative and competitive advantage: apparel and textiles, agro‑processing, digital services, hospitality and tourism, the blue economy, and even the structural enablers such as visa free travel and freer movement of people across the continent. Each of these sectors represents a lever that, if scaled, can transform Africa’s economic trajectory.
But as we enter a new year, it is time to shift the lens. Sectors alone do not trade. Policies alone do not move goods. Agreements alone do not build markets. What Africa also needs are Agents, which are catalytic actors who can translate continental ambition into commercial reality.
This new year, we begin the series by focusing on one of the most underutilized yet high‑impact instruments available to African governments: Trade Envoys.
These envoys, when strategically deployed, can become the connective tissue between political commitments, private‑sector ambition and real cross border trade flows. They are the human infrastructure required to unlock the promise of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and accelerate the continent’s shift from aid to trade.
What exactly is a Trade Envoy?
A trade envoy is a senior representative appointed by a head of state, minister of trade or national investment authority to champion a country’s commercial interests across borders. Unlike traditional diplomats, whose mandates are broad and political, trade envoys are commercially focused, outcome driven and deeply embedded in the realities of business.
Their 5 core functions include:
- Market Opening and Deal Facilitation
- Investment Mobilization
- Policy and Regulatory Diplomacy
- Building Strategic Partnerships
- National Branding and Narrative Influence
In essence, trade envoys are economic diplomats with a commercial mandate, bridging the gap between political goodwill and private sector action.
Why Africa needs Trade Envoys
The AfCFTA has created a rules based framework for trade, but frameworks alone do not move goods or close deals. Africa’s trade challenges are deeply practical: (a) non‑tariff barriers (b) fragmented logistics (c) limited market intelligence (d) weak cross‑border value chains and (e) slow government‑to‑government coordination.
Trade envoys can cut through these constraints by providing speed, access and continuity, which are often the three things that bureaucratic systems struggle to deliver.
They can also help African countries shift from exporting raw materials to building regional manufacturing ecosystems, where value is added across multiple countries before products reach global markets.
Let’s use Nigeria and Kenya, the largest economies in West and East Africa respectively to illustrate.
Nigeria: W/African anchor, pan‑African powerhouse
Nigeria has long been the dominant economic force in West Africa, leveraging ECOWAS as a platform for trade, labour mobility and regional influence. Its banks, cement manufacturers, fintech companies and creative industries have expanded across the subregion with relative ease. But ECOWAS, while important, represents only a fraction of Africa’s total market opportunity.
The next frontier for Nigeria and the one with the greatest potential for transformative impact lies in East and Southern Africa. These are regions where Nigeria’s commercial footprint remains limited but where demand, industrial capacity and complementary strengths are rapidly growing.
Personal illustration: Dangote’s Tanzania moment
Years ago, while driving from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam, I found myself on a long, surprisingly tarmared stretch of road, the kind of landscape where you expect to see nothing but bush and sky. Then, out of nowhere, I began to notice Dangote Cement trucks rumbling along the highway. At first, it felt almost surreal. Nigerian business branded trucks deep in the heart of rural Tanzania.
Only later did I discover that Aliko Dangote had built a full scale cement factory in Mtwara, a Nigerian industrial giant investing boldly in East Africa, creating jobs, strengthening supply chains and proving that African companies can scale across borders with confidence.
That moment stayed with me. It was a reminder that Africa needs more of this, more cross national investments, more continental ambition, more companies willing to operate beyond their comfort zones. And it reinforced the idea that trade envoys could help multiply these kinds of ventures across the continent.
Trade envoys helping Nigeria beyond West Africa
- Building new trade corridors linking Nigeria to East and Southern Africa.
- Integrating Nigeria into continental value chains in textiles, agro‑processing, digital services, automotive components and pharmaceuticals
- Expanding Nigeria’s export footprint into new regions hungry for Nigerian products
- Attracting investment into Nigeria’s manufacturing base from East and Southern African investors
- Strengthening Nigeria’s continental influence in AfCFTA implementation and economic governance
Nigeria’s expansion into East and Southern Africa is not a zero sum game. It creates shared value: new markets for Nigeria, new partners for East and Southern Africa and stronger continental value chains for all.
Kenya: East Africa’s economic gateway and power of trade envoys
As Nigeria looks east and south, Kenya can be looking west and the symmetry is powerful.
Kenya has long positioned itself as East Africa’s commercial nerve centre, powered by a dynamic private sector and a strong services econo. . Nairobi’s ecosystem of banks, telcos, logistics firms, agribusinesses and digital innovators has created a regional footprint that is far beyond its borders.
But Kenya’s next chapter, the one that could redefine its continental influence, lies in West Africa, especially Nigeria.
Kenya’s private sector as a regional force
Two companies illustrate Kenya’s continental ambition better than any others: Safaricom and Equity Bank.
Safaricom: What it would mean if it entered Nigeria
Safaricom is one of Africa’s most influential digital infrastructure companies. Through M‑Pesa, it pioneered mobile money at scale, transforming financial inclusion across East Africa. Its expansion into Ethiopia proved that Kenyan digital innovation can compete in Africa’s largest markets.
But imagine the impact if Safaricom enters Nigeria
(I) A market of over 200 million people for mobile money and digital payments
(II) A continental digital corridor linking East and West Africa
(III) New opportunities for Kenyan fintechs to scale
(IV) Stronger Kenyan influence in AfCFTA digital trade negotiations
Safaricom entering Nigeria would be a continental milestone and game changer. Trade envoys could make it possible.
Equity Bank: Financial powerhouse ready for West Africa
Equity Bank has built one of Africa’s most successful cross border banking networks. Its next frontier is clear: West Africa and especially Nigeria.
If Equity Bank were to enter Nigeria
(I) Kenyan SMEs would gain access to financing in Africa’s largest market
(II) Cross continental trade flows would become easier and cheaper
(III) Kenya’s financial services sector would become a true exporter
(IV) Nairobi’s position as a regional financial hub would be strengthened
Trade envoys can accelerate this by negotiating banking licenses, supporting regulatory approvals and building government‑to‑government trust.
Why Kenya needs trade envoys now
Kenya’s private sector is ready for continental expansion, but the enabling environment is not. Trade envoys can unlock this by:
(a) Negotiating market access
(b) Resolving regulatory barriers
(c) Building strategic alliances
(d) Promoting Kenya’s digital and financial services
(e) Supporting Kenyan SMEs to plug into regional value chains
Kenya’s future growth will not come from East Africa alone. It will come from continental integration.
Conclusion: Africa’s moment requires trade envoys
The Promoting Intra‑Africa Trade Series has shown that Africa’s future lies in scaling productive sectors, building regional value chains and unlocking the continent’s entrepreneurial energy. But sectors need champions. Policies need implementers. Markets need connectors. While these are the role of Trade and Investment Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries, but such leadership positions are strategic and policy oriented, we also need functional and delivery roles which is what trade envoys are and should be all about.
Trade envoys are the agents Africa has been missing.
Nigeria and Kenya, as regional anchors, have a special responsibility. By deploying trade envoys across Africa, they can catalyze a new era of intra‑African commerce, strengthen regional value chains and position the continent as a competitive global economic bloc.
Africa is standing at the threshold of an economic era, but thresholds are crossed by deliberate action, not aspiration. Trade envoys offer the speed, access and continuity that our systems have struggled to deliver, the catalytic actors who can turn continental ambition into continental commerce. They are the practical instruments that convert frameworks into factories, goodwill into deals and the AfCFTA from a blueprint into a functioning marketplace.
Nigeria and Kenya, as two of the continent’s most dynamic economic anchors, have a unique responsibility. Their private sectors are already shaping regional value chains; their governments must now deploy the envoys who can open new corridors, negotiate market access and unlock the scale Africa has long imagined.
If Africa is serious about shifting from aid to trade, then this is the moment to send out the envoys who can make that shift irreversible. When Nigeria and Kenya move, the continent moves and Africa’s next chapter begins.The AfCFTA has given Africa the blueprint. Trade envoys can provide the engine.
