Import finance · 6 Nov 2026 · 2 min read
Africa’s trade grew in 2024. The finance gap did not.
CFU
I I like to write about interesting things
Summarise with
Africa’s merchandise trade rose to US$1,527.01 billion in 2024. Intra-African trade reached US$220.3 billion, still 14.4 percent of the total. The report puts the trade-finance gap at about US$100 billion a year.
Africa’s merchandise trade recovered in 2024, and most of that trade still happens outside the continent. Afreximbank’s 2025 report puts the annual trade-finance gap at about US$100 billion.
What the 2024 numbers say
Table 4.3 puts Africa’s merchandise exports at US$758.01 billion, up 21.02 percent. Imports were US$769.01 billion, up 7.59 percent. Total merchandise trade was US$1,527.01 billion, up 13.86 percent. The trade deficit narrowed to US$11.00 billion, from US$88.36 billion in 2023.
The executive summary rounds the same recovery to US$1.5 trillion, up 13.9 percent. Intra-African trade rose 12.4 percent to US$220.3 billion, after a 5.9 percent fall in 2023. Its share of Africa’s total trade was 14.4 percent, down from 14.7 percent in 2023.
Africa’s real GDP grew 3.2 percent in 2024. The report says that is still below a historical average of about 5 percent. Africa’s share of world exports eased from 3.5 percent in 2009 to 3.3 percent in 2024.
Tanzania in the same tables
Table 3.2 shows Tanzania’s real GDP growth at 5.4 percent in 2024, after 5.1 percent in 2023 and 4.7 percent in 2022. Table 3.3 shows inflation at 3.2 percent in 2024, after 3.8 percent in 2023 and 4.4 percent in 2022.
Table 4.3 shows Tanzania’s merchandise exports at US$9.06 billion, up 24.49 percent. Imports were US$18.96 billion, up 25.42 percent. Exports were 1.19 percent of Africa’s merchandise exports.
Table 6.1 shows Tanzania’s intra-African exports at US$3.24 billion, up 21.93 percent. That was 2.56 percent of intra-African exports. Intra-African imports were US$1.94 billion.
Where the report says the constraint is
The report says the finance gap keeps most African small and medium-sized firms out of regional supply chains. Afreximbank disbursed more than US$17.5 billion in trade finance in 2024. The foreword says the bank is on course to double intra-African trade financing to US$40 billion by 2026.
The executive summary names four pieces of work:
- More capital, and fairer global rules, for African development banks
- Faster AfCFTA work on tariffs, rules of origin, and national coordination
- Payment systems that cut the use of the dollar and the euro, including PAPSS, now linked to more than a dozen central banks
- Use of Africa’s G20 seat to press for changes to special drawing rights, debt restructuring, and financial rules
The cash gap is the part a Tanzanian importer can feel on one shipment. The report does not say that gap has closed.