As Africa accelerates implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), policymakers and trade regulators are warning that the success of the continent’s single market may depend not only on removing tariffs and border restrictions, but also on preventing monopolies, market abuse and unfair competition practices from distorting trade across African economies.
At the third edition of Biashara Afrika in Lomé, senior African trade officials and competition regulators pushed for the urgent harmonisation of competition laws and enforcement mechanisms, arguing that fragmented national systems risk undermining the broader economic promise of the AfCFTA.
The discussions reflect a growing recognition that Africa’s integration agenda faces a second-generation challenge beyond customs delays and logistics bottlenecks: how to regulate increasingly interconnected markets fairly across multiple jurisdictions.
Without stronger continental competition frameworks, officials warned, dominant firms, cartels, anti-competitive agreements and market manipulation could weaken smaller economies, restrict market access for SMEs and erode consumer benefits expected under the AfCFTA.
Competition Risks Emerging Inside Africa’s Single Market
The concerns come as intra-African trade gradually expands under the AfCFTA framework, exposing structural gaps in how markets are regulated across the continent.
Speaking at a high-level conference on competition policy and law held alongside the Biashara Afrika summit, Simeon Koffi, Director-General of the ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority, said cross-border anti-competitive practices are becoming increasingly difficult for individual countries to manage independently.
He identified inconsistent national legal frameworks, institutional weaknesses, barriers to market entry and weak enforcement systems among the biggest constraints facing competition authorities across member states.
According to Koffi, the dominance of informal economic activity across parts of Africa further complicates market regulation and enforcement.
“Purely national solutions have shown their limits,” he stated, calling for far stronger cooperation between regional competition regulators and the proposed continental AfCFTA competition authority.
The comments signal growing concern that Africa’s economic integration could unintentionally create larger spaces for abusive market behaviour if regulatory coordination fails to keep pace with trade liberalisation.
A Push for Common Rules Across Africa
The AfCFTA aims to create a unified market covering over 1.4 billion people and a combined GDP exceeding US$3 trillion.
But officials say achieving meaningful integration will require more than reducing tariffs.
Claude Talime Abe, Director-General for Trade in Togo, argued that competition policy must become a central pillar underpinning fairness, transparency and investor confidence within Africa’s emerging single market.
He called for harmonised competition principles across national and regional systems to ensure businesses compete on equal terms regardless of jurisdiction.
“Competition policy and law are essential for promoting trade exchanges within a framework of fairness, security, and healthy competition,” he said.
“But competition law must go beyond policy declarations and focus on practical implementation mechanisms capable of supporting sustainable regional trade.”
The remarks reflect broader concerns among African businesses that inconsistent regulations, uneven enforcement and weak institutional coordination could create uncertainty for investors and limit the efficiency gains expected under the AfCFTA.
Why Competition Policy Matters for Business
The debate carries major implications for African businesses, particularly SMEs attempting to scale across regional markets.
Without effective competition safeguards, smaller firms risk being crowded out by dominant players with stronger financial capacity, cross-border reach and greater market influence.
Competition experts warn that unchecked monopolistic practices can distort pricing, limit innovation, restrict consumer choice and weaken investment incentives across integrated markets.
The issue is particularly sensitive in sectors such as telecommunications, logistics, digital commerce, manufacturing, transport and financial services, where regional market concentration could rapidly emerge as integration deepens.
Trade officials also fear that inconsistent national regulations could trigger regulatory arbitrage, where firms exploit weaker enforcement systems in some countries to gain unfair competitive advantages across the continent.
AfCFTA’s Institutional Balancing Act
Wamkele Mene said the AfCFTA treaty itself already anticipates many of these regulatory challenges.
According to him, the competition protocol embedded within the agreement establishes complementary roles between national authorities, regional regulators and the continental framework.
“We have built into the treaty these legal complementarities to enable the national authorities and the regional authorities to continue their work in a complementary manner,” Mene said.
“What we are seeking to achieve is a common policy and legal framework of competition for our continent.”
The AfCFTA Secretariat believes this layered regulatory structure could help balance the interests of both large and smaller economies while protecting African consumers and businesses.
Still, implementation remains the critical challenge.
Enforcement Capacity Under Pressure
One of the biggest concerns raised during the conference was the uneven institutional capacity across African states.
Several competition authorities continue to face funding shortages, technical limitations and weak enforcement powers, even as regional trade volumes expand.
This creates the risk of regulatory fragmentation inside a market that is simultaneously trying to become more integrated.
The challenge is compounded by Africa’s rapidly evolving digital economy, where cross-border technology platforms, digital payments systems and e-commerce networks are growing faster than regulatory frameworks in many jurisdictions.
Officials increasingly acknowledge that without coordinated oversight, some sectors could become vulnerable to excessive concentration and anti-competitive conduct long before continental enforcement systems fully mature.
The Stakes for Africa’s Single Market
The debate unfolding in Lomé ultimately reflects a deeper question confronting the AfCFTA project itself: whether Africa can build not only a larger market, but also a fairer and more efficiently regulated one.
Trade liberalisation alone may not automatically produce inclusive growth if businesses face uneven market conditions or abusive competitive practices.
For African policymakers, the challenge now extends beyond signing agreements toward building the legal, institutional and enforcement architecture capable of sustaining a truly integrated continental economy.
As the AfCFTA moves from ambition toward operational reality, competition policy is increasingly emerging not as a technical side issue, but as one of the defining battlegrounds shaping who benefits from Africa’s economic integration drive.
