Africa’s push for deeper regional integration and stronger intra-African trade continues to face major setbacks, with poor implementation of agreements, fragmented markets, financing gaps, and mistrust among states slowing progress despite decades of political commitments, experts have said.

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The concerns emerged during a panel discussion on "Regional Integration and Intra-Africa Trade: Opportunities for Africa’s Sustainable Development” held as part of Africa Day celebrations in Kigali, on Sunday, May 24.

Prudence Sebahizi, the Minister of Trade and Industry, said Africa’s integration agenda was born out of the need to transform the continent’s vast resources and population into shared prosperity.

"Africa has 55 countries, 1.4 billion people, and more than 60 per cent of the world’s resources. But despite the numbers and the resources that we have, we are still poor,” Sebahizi said.

He noted that Africa’s combined GDP remains lower than that of countries such as Germany, France or Japan despite the continent’s demographic and resource advantage.

"That’s when the idea of having a continental market came about,” he said, referring to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

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Sebahizi said the agreement, signed in Kigali in 2018 under the leadership of President Paul Kagame as Chairperson of the African Union, was intended to integrate African markets, create jobs, increase industrial production and reduce poverty.

"The AfCFTA is not just about trade. It is about development. It is about industrialisation. It is about creating jobs for our young people,” he said.

He pointed to Rwanda as one of the countries that moved early to ratify and begin trading under the agreement, noting that Rwanda now exports products to markets such as Ghana and Nigeria, countries it previously had limited trade relations with.

But while opportunities exist, Sebahizi acknowledged that implementation across the continent remains slow and uneven.

"We negotiated the agreement, we put institutions in place, we have legal instruments, but implementation remains the challenge,” he said.

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The former Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission Monique Nsanzabaganwa said one of the biggest obstacles is that many agreements are ratified politically but fail to be translated into functioning national systems.

"Domestication goes beyond ratification,” she said. "It has to trickle down to administrations.”

According to Nsanzabaganwa, regional integration requires coordination between customs agencies, immigration offices, standards bodies, central banks and digital systems, making implementation more complex than merely signing treaties.

"You can sign all agreements, but if border officials, customs systems, financial institutions and transport systems are not aligned, trade will still not move,” she said.

She also said African institutions created to drive integration often remain underfunded despite the expectations placed on them.

"We tend to forget that we are the ones who put them there, and we tend to under-resource them,” she said.

Nsanzabaganwa further warned that mistrust among African countries continues to undermine cooperation, especially in areas such as digital trade, data governance and financial systems.

"Sometimes you fear and you don’t trust each other because you lack solutions that can give you comfort,” she said.

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Businessman Dennis Karera warned that Africa risks remaining trapped in endless conferences and declarations without practical implementation.

"We have a lot of things to say, but we must put them into action,” he said.

Karera criticised the poor follow-through on summit resolutions and regional commitments, arguing that many decisions taken by African institutions remain largely ignored years later.

He also raised concerns over persistent non-tariff barriers, restrictive border systems and limited openness among African states.

"There’s a lot of dishonesty. I do not know why we do not trust each other,” Karera said, comparing Africa’s fragmented systems to Europe’s freer movement arrangements.

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Former East African Community Secretary General Richard Sezibera said Africa’s biggest challenge is no longer policy formulation but execution and accountability.

He recalled that after joining the East African Community in 2011, he found decisions taken a decade earlier had still not been implemented.

"Decision number one of the Council of Ministers of 2001 remained unimplemented in 2011,” he said.

Instead of producing more declarations, Sezibera proposed stronger monitoring systems and "implementation matrices” to track progress and hold institutions accountable.

"I think we need to move to the implementation phase,” he said.

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Sudan’s Ambassador to Rwanda, Khalid Musa Dafalla, said Africa cannot become globally competitive while intra-African trade remains significantly lower than in other regions.

"The intra-trade statistic in Africa is always around 16 per cent, while Asia enjoys around 60 per cent,” he said.

Dafalla said weak infrastructure, limited transport connectivity, energy shortages and fragmented markets continue to undermine regional trade ambitions.

"Regional integration is not an option. It is a necessity,” he said.

He also argued that Africa’s industrialisation ambitions cannot succeed without solving challenges related to electricity generation, food insecurity and dependence on foreign technologies.