📅 Sunday Edition | 🌍 How to Trade With Africa – Weekly Newsletter (Edition #34)
Introduction
What We Often Miss About Trading With Africa (And Why It Matters)
Trade With Africa Isn’t Just a Strategy—It’s a Human Story
If you’ve been with me on this newsletter journey, you know I’ve shared a lot about African trade and opportunities offered to businesses within and outside Africa.
Let’s keep things real.
So, today I want to start by admitting something: I had a bit of writer’s block this week.
But I’ve learned that it usually means I must write from the heart ❤️ and not the head.
So I took a walk, cleared my mind, and asked myself:
What’s something we’re not talking about enough in the “Trade with Africa” conversation?
And the answer came rushing in.
We talk a lot about the technical and systems side of African Trade & Less about the people.
🌍 Today, it’s time to talk more about the people who power trade in Africa.
Yes, trade policies matter. ✅ So do logistics, customs, and market-entry strategies. But behind every trade deal, every export crate, every cross-border truck, is a human being.
And those human beings?
They’re the true engine behind African trade.
I’m talking about:
🔹 Government policymakers and implementers are drafting the future trade policies and trade
agreements
🔹 Men & Women traders hustling across borders for a better life
🔹 Local advisors and elders offering quiet, essential wisdom
🔹 Youth-led startups reimagining African commerce
🔹 Workers at ports, checkpoints, and roadside stalls who make sure trade doesn’t stop
These people?
They’re not background players. They are the story.
🏛️ Let’s start with the policymakers: The architects of African Market access
You don’t always see them, but they’re there—working late hours in government offices, attending regional summits, drafting & reviewing policies, and ensuring they create a conducive environment for trade
These are the public servants who craft the frameworks for trade: 📃 Export & Import policies 🛃 Customs regulations 🌐 Trade Policies, Trade Agreements such as the African Continental Free Trade Agreement 🚧 Cross-border infrastructure, etc.
And they’re not just pushing paper.
They’re asking hard questions like:
❓ How do we integrate African economies without excluding the smaller nations?
❓ How do we make formal trade accessible to small-scale traders, including women and young entrepreneurs?
❓ How do we digitize trade while still protecting jobs and communities?
These policymakers often have firsthand knowledge of the economic challenges on the ground. They have a mammoth task of balancing national interest with continental vision and global partnerships.
Let’s give them the credit they deserve 🙌🏽.
When we say “Trade With Africa,” let’s also mean understand and engage with its policy leaders—because they’re shaping the landscape beneath our feet.
💪🏽 The women traders: Africa’s unsung economic backbone
Forget the suits and ties for a moment.
Want to see real trade in action? Go to the marketplace. The bus stop. The border towns, the Harbor Towns.
There, you’ll meet her:
👩🏽🦱 A woman trading tomatoes, textiles, shea butter, dried fish 🚶🏽♀️ Crossing borders with baskets on her head 🧮 Negotiating prices in three languages 💼 Feeding her family while moving goods between countries
She’s not waiting for policy to catch up. She is the policy in motion.
Studies show that over 70% of informal cross-border traders in Africa are women. They may not hold MBAs, but they understand supply chains, risk, customer relationships, and currency exchange—often better than we give them credit for.
But here’s the challenge:
🚫 Harassment at borders 🚫 Bribery and informal fees 🚫 No access to finance 🚫 Lack of legal protection
And yet, they persist 💪🏽. They keep showing up every single day.
These women don’t just power regional economies—they are the reason some towns and villages thrive. They’re feeding cities, keeping families afloat, and trading goods long before there’s a formal trade route.
So ask yourself: Is your business model, policy, or trade strategy doing enough to include her?
Because if it’s not, then we’re missing out on Africa’s most powerful trade allies.
🧓🏽 Don’t overlook the quiet wisdom in the shadows
There are voices in the African trade space that never make the conference panels 🎤 or policy papers 📘—but they shape everything.
They are the:
🌾 Grandmothers and Grandfathers who advise young women and men on smarter pricing
🚚 Local transporters who know the back roads when the main highway floods
🤝 Elders who help resolve trade disputes without lawyers
🔄 Fixers who speak three dialects and make cross-border deals happen with a handshake
These aren’t “formal stakeholders,” but they are essential actors.
They carry the ancestral knowledge, the practical workarounds, and the cultural intelligence. They translate not just languages, but context.
📍 And in trade context, is everything.
If we want our models to work, our partnerships to last, and our investments to truly land… we must make room for the knowledge that can’t be Googled.
💡 So, what does this mean for us?
It means that “trading with Africa” isn’t just a supply chain strategy—it’s a human relationship strategy.
Here’s what I encourage you to reflect on:
🔹 If you’re in government or policy:
Are your frameworks inclusive of informal traders? Are you making plans to transition them to formality? Are you speaking with the people your policies are meant to serve? Are women, youth, and micro-entrepreneurs in the room?
🔹 If you’re in business:
Are your partnerships based on transaction or trust? Are you sourcing locally, training locally, and building models that work for and with African communities?
🔹 If you’re an investor or funder:
Are you only backing scalable startups, or are you also funding grassroots ideas, cooperatives, and real-world innovation that doesn’t fit a pitch deck?
🔹 And if you’re just curious and learning:
👏🏽 You’re in the right place. Stay tuned for more.
So thank you for being here 🙏🏽. For reading, reflecting, and building differently. I trust you enjoyed reading.
We’re 34 newsletters in, and it still feels like we’re just getting started 🚀.
Let’s keep going.
Until next Sunday, stay inspired, stay curious, and let’s connect!
Warm Regards,
Ngoanamokgotho Maggie Tladi
Your Trusted Guide to Trading with Africa