Partnering for Prosperity Beyond Cheque Book Aid

Jessse Amoah | Africa Fellow

Image sourced from Hayward via Wikimedia Commons

When the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was established in 2019, it set a one-market agenda with common rules for investment, intellectual property and digital trade. As a result, local enterprises, which account for about 80 per cent of African jobs, feel these gains first.

Six years on, progress toward a cohesive continental market remains slow, not due to a lack of ambition, but rather to a lack of enabling infrastructure and institutional capacity. Three major gaps are limiting the trade area’s capacity to scale: costly transport networks, an unreliable energy supply, and insecure digital connectivity.

Australia has a clear stake in the success of AfCFTA. A larger African market can boost demand for Australian goods and services, diversify trade beyond Asia, and secure critical minerals and clean energy supply chains. Rather than episodic aid, such as one-off contributions to the Humanitarian Emergency Fund, Australia should prioritise de-risking investment by fast-tracking priority logistics corridors, safeguarding the independence of energy-market regulators, and supporting African digitalisation to strengthen local economies.

Transportation Networks

Australia treats infrastructure as a core economic policy. Federally, this includes funding mechanisms for cross-jurisdictional coordination of priority roads and rail corridors. This delivers durable, faster, and cheaper freight that boosts the competitiveness of local enterprises.

Africa’s task is larger and much more complex. Networks across roads, rail, ports, and airports remain thin and costly. At the same time, corridor bottlenecks, port queues, and paperwork turn opportunity into waiting. The African Development Bank estimates that expenditure on infrastructure investments needs to be between USD$130 billion and USD$170 billion annually. Currently, the continent faces a financing gap of between USD$68 billion and USD$108 billion.

The African Union is attempting to close the infrastructure gap, but delivery still lags. Its Programme for Infrastructure Development aims to build the energy, transport and digital networks that trade requires. However, approximately half of the 430 projects initiated under the Programme did not proceed to the early construction phase. The Union has since narrowed the pipeline to 69 priority projects worth more than USD$160 billion over the next decade, concentrating efforts and financing. This is progress, but it remains short of what is needed.

Australia can turn know-how into development. By launching an Australia–Africa Corridor Partnership, Australia would pair Australian delivery specialists with the African Union Development Agency to design, finance, and govern a few priority transport corridors. Such a program would bolster the continent’s project pipeline, strengthen cross-border connectivity, and unlock AfCFTA’s promise of seamless trade, enabling faster freight movement, reducing transaction costs, and ensuring African export orders are fulfilled efficiently.

Energy Supply

Australia is equally well-positioned to assist in energy market matters. Currently across Africa, unreliable supply chains still shut down factories and slow services. In an effort to upgrade this failing service, the African Union launched the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) on 4 June 2021, aiming to link all 55 member states by 2040 through a shared energy grid.

However, building the physical infrastructure is only part of the solution. Lasting reliability will depend on effective coordinated regulation, such as pricing network access with clear, predictable tariffs across the grid to boost both consumer and investor confidence. Only through implementing such measures can a network hope to maintain a steady supply, ensuring power remains dependable.

Australia’s National Electricity Market offers a transferable playbook. Drawing on its experience integrating multiple jurisdictions under uniform rules and an independent operator, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in cooperation with Energy Market Operator, should partner with the African Union Development Agency to co-draft a model grid code and the enabling legislation.

Digitalisation

Finally, despite the promises of digitisation, Africans lag their international peers in the uptake of digital tools. In 2024, 38 per cent of people on the continent used the internet, compared to a global average of 68 per cent.

Africa’s digital economy rests on fragile foundations. To unlock trade opportunities enabled by the AfCFTA, African governments inside the North-South Corridor and Abidjan–Lagos Corridor should prioritise three key enabling pillars: last-mile connectivity, interoperable payments, and digital trust.

Expanding fibre and 4G/5G into rural and peri-urban areas connects small firms online and builds the user base essential for modern payments. This foundation will enable real-time cross-border payments without the need for costly intermediaries. Additionally, implementing robust e-signature regulations would enable baseline data protection and cybersecurity, fostering the trust businesses need to transact confidently.

Building Africa’s digital foundations complements Australia’s broader goal of de-risking investment and strengthening the AfCFTA’s market architecture. By partnering to move beyond today’s fragile digital base and prioritising last-mile connectivity, interoperable payments, and credible digital trust safeguards, Australia can connect African SMEs to global markets while opening new opportunities for Australian venture capital.

Opportunity Across the Continent

Once transport becomes efficient, energy becomes reliable and digital systems become secure, AfCFTA will be able to convert ambition into broad-based prosperity. The task now is to coordinate delivery with capable regulators to ensure firms experience fewer border frictions, faster clearance, and more dependable payments.

Australia’s comparative edge lies in assisting with the de-risking process. This entails supporting African digitalisation, ensuring a robust regulatory framework for the energy grid, and accelerating the development of logistics and transportation corridors. By helping to build enabling infrastructure and the institutions that govern it, Australia can materially advance AfCFTA’s one-market agenda.

Focusing on these three pillars will foster a digital trade environment that is integrated, affordable, and inclusive, aligning with and advancing the shared interests of AfCFTA and Australia.

Jesse Amoah is the Africa ellow for Young Australians in International Affairs. Jesse is completing a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of New South Wales. His passion for Africa–Australia engagement is grounded in his Ghanaian heritage and shaped by experience across public policy and private markets. As an Africa Fellow, Jesse is committed to strengthening Australia’s strategic and diplomatic ties with the continent. He is particularly interested in how trade policy, diaspora networks, and investment diplomacy can position Australia as a meaningful partner in the African century.

Our 2025 Africa Fellow is sponsored by the Centre for Africa-Australia Relations. For more information, visit their website here.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Young Australians in International Affairs. All content is original, and no plagiarism has been used in the preparation of this article.