Prime Highlights
- Africa pension assets have crossed $3 trillion while intra-African trade reached $220 billion.
- Africa’s economy is projected to grow around four percent in 2026, with intra-African trade up more than 12 percent.
Key Facts
- African Continental Free Trade Area now covers 47 countries.
- Standard Bank backed $1.3bn in imports, $4bn in exports via Africa-China trade.
Background
Africa’s economic momentum keeps building, with Africa pension assets crossing $3 trillion and intra-African trade reaching $220 billion. The continent’s economy is on track to grow around four percent, backed by a rise of more than 12 percent in intra-African trade.
Bill Blackie, Chief Executive Business and Commercial Banking at Standard Bank, shared these figures while opening the Africa Unlocked Conference in Cape Town. He said Business Banking clients now trade more with each other across the continent than with any single outside partner, including China, the United States or the European Union, a shift he called structural rather than short-term.
Blackie pointed to the African Continental Free Trade Area, which now brings together 47 countries, making it the largest free trade area by participant count anywhere in the world. He added that the continent’s infrastructure pipeline has grown deeper, with energy transition plans increasingly backed by strong commercial footing.
He highlighted several African businesses fueling this growth, including Coast Cables in East Africa, a power cable manufacturer that has expanded into solar energy, and Hungry Lion, a retail chain that has grown past 500 stores across nine countries and is working toward 750 stores.
Blackie pointed to Standard Bank’s long partnership with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which has helped move Renminbi transactions worth 1.9 billion yuan for clients trading with China.
On the import side, the bank’s Africa-China trade solutions backed 720 clients bringing in machinery worth 1.3 billion rand. On exports, 380 clients sent goods worth 4 billion rand to Chinese buyers through multi-year deals.
Africa holds close to 60 percent of the world’s best solar resources, Blackie said, along with key minerals the world needs for its energy shift. That gives the continent a strong base for industrial growth in the years ahead.
