Development leaders at the sixth Africa Resilience Forum have renewed calls for strong political commitment and investment in quality border infrastructure to ease the movement of people and goods across Africa and accelerate the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The call came during a panel discussion on “Regional Integration and Trade as Pathways to Peace”, held on 1 October as part of the three-day forum organised by the African Development Bank Group in Abidjan. Speakers emphasised that effective border systems, including the establishment of single, digitised checkpoints, could significantly reduce delays, improve trade efficiency, and enhance regional peace and stability.
“The ideal is to have a single border post between countries – if we were to have strong infrastructure like that, it would help facilitate trade,” said Mohammed Abdiker, Chief of Staff of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Abdiker noted that political will remains critical for success. “We must all work together, advocating to our governments on the importance of the movement of goods and people for a more integrated management of our borders,” he urged. “Not only for customs duties, but also for science and technology.”
He explained that the IOM had previously collaborated on a single border post project between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, which had shown encouraging results. “It worked for a while. Now we have started another similar project with the African Development Bank between the Central African Republic and Cameroon, which is improving cross-border trade,” Abdiker added.
The Africa Resilience Forum, held every two years, brings together policymakers, financiers, and development partners to explore solutions that link humanitarian aid, peacebuilding, and sustainable development. This year’s edition has focused on regional integration as a driver of resilience in fragile and conflict-affected areas.
The discussions also highlighted the role of the AfCFTA, launched in January 2021 to boost intra-African trade and promote industrial and agricultural development across the continent. As of January 2025, 49 countries had ratified the agreement, creating a potential single market of 1.3 billion people.
The African Development Bank Group has been a key partner in supporting trade facilitation infrastructure, financing several One Stop Border Post (OSBP) projects to simplify customs and reduce transport bottlenecks. Among these are a single control post between Tanzania and Kenya, and a juxtaposed checkpoint between Benin and Togo, established with support from the African Development Fund, the Bank’s concessional lending arm.
“As well as having a single border post at each of our borders, we will need to digitise border services,” said Magdalene Dagoseh, Liberia’s Minister of Commerce and Industry. “This is a solution for controlling not only the movement of people, but also commercial goods. By digitising the various border points, we can fight corruption – we know how many people have left or entered, and this prevents other problems.”
Ziad Hamoui, President of the Borderless Alliance, a private-sector initiative launched in 2012 to promote regional trade in West Africa, also called for greater civil society participation in policymaking. “There is formal trade, but also informal trade, not to mention illicit trade and smuggling,” he said. “Today, the volume of trade in the informal sector is higher than in the formal sector. So if you don’t know what’s going on at the borders, you won’t know how to manage it.”
The forum’s discussions underscored that strengthening border infrastructure and digitising customs systems are not just economic imperatives but also peacebuilding tools, capable of fostering cooperation, reducing smuggling, and creating shared prosperity across Africa’s borders.
(Source: African Development Bank Group)
