The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is accelerating efforts to open up trade in services across the continent, betting that sectors ranging from finance and tourism to music and legal services could become major drivers of intra-African commerce.
Emily Mburu-Ndoria, Director of Trade in Services at the AfCFTA Secretariat, said the bloc is shifting from negotiations to implementation, with member states now committing to liberalise key services sectors and harmonise regulations that have long restricted cross-border business activity.
“We actually do say there is no trading goods without trading services,” Mburu-Ndoria said in an AfCFTA podcast discussion, pointing to transport, banking, telecommunications and logistics as the backbone of continental trade.
While much of the public debate has focused on tariffs and goods, the Secretariat is increasingly highlighting services as a growth engine for Africa’s digital economy, creative industries and professional workforce.
Mburu-Ndoria said 25 countries have already adopted schedules of specific commitments under the services protocol, allowing varying degrees of liberalisation in five priority sectors, business services, communications, finance, tourism and transport. Another 25 countries are participating in negotiations, with 16 having submitted draft commitments.
“If we have the 16 plus the 25, we will now have about 41 countries by the end of this year,” she said.
The push reflects growing recognition that Africa’s economic integration depends as much on moving expertise and digital services as moving physical goods.
The Secretariat frames the services agenda broadly, covering sectors from architecture and insurance to entertainment, hospitality and digital platforms. Mburu-Ndoria argued that the creative economy illustrates how intertwined Africa’s trade agenda has become.
At the Secretariat’s Creative Connect Africa event in Accra last year, fashion designers, filmmakers and musicians from across the continent explored collaborations that would rely on easier movement of talent, equipment and intellectual property protections.
She cited streaming platforms such as YouTube, Spotify and Netflix as examples of how African creatives increasingly operate across borders through digital trade.
The AfCFTA is also working on mutual recognition agreements aimed at allowing professionals such as lawyers, architects and insurers to operate more easily in multiple African jurisdictions.
“The lawyers will not be able to move from one country to another if their qualifications or licensing procedures are not recognised,” Mburu-Ndoria said.
Insurance integration remains another challenge. Different regional insurance systems, including the Yellow Card scheme in East and Southern Africa and the Brown Card system in West Africa, still operate separately, complicating cross-border transport and logistics.
The Secretariat wants regulators to recognise each other’s policies to reduce friction for businesses operating across regions.
The services protocol identifies four modes of trade, including digital cross-border services, consumer travel, commercial establishment and temporary movement of professionals.
Mburu-Ndoria said digital delivery is becoming increasingly important, citing examples such as Nigerian architects designing projects remotely for clients in Uganda without either party travelling.
The AfCFTA Secretariat argues that liberalising services could unlock broader industrial growth by improving transport networks, payment systems, communications infrastructure and tourism ecosystems.
Still, barriers remain. African fashion brands and other creative businesses continue to face high tariffs, logistical bottlenecks and fragmented regulations when selling products across borders.
Mburu-Ndoria referenced Ghanaian fashion house Christie Brown as an example of businesses struggling to scale sales into other African markets because of tariff and transport costs.
The AfCFTA estimates that reducing such barriers could help deepen intra-African trade, which remains significantly lower than trade levels within Europe and Asia.
For the Secretariat, the next phase of integration may depend less on border checkpoints and more on whether African countries can align financial regulations, recognise professional qualifications and support digital commerce across the continent.
