China-Africa trade reached a record 1.41 trillion yuan (about $197 billion) in the first half of 2026, underscoring the scale and continued expansion of Beijing’s economic presence on the continent. That scale helps explain why China’s development model remains attractive to many African governments. But the more difficult question is whether Africa can reproduce the less visible part of China’s transformation: the creation of an integrated market where infrastructure, capital, labor and goods can move across regions with fewer barriers.
China’s experience is relevant precisely because its domestic market was not always as integrated as it appears today. Regional governments once had strong incentives to protect local industries and revenues, creating barriers to trade and investment between provinces. Infrastructure was often developed according to local priorities rather than as part of a unified national system. China’s eventual push to build a unified national market therefore involved much more than removing trade barriers. It required coordination, common rules, infrastructure and stronger mechanisms for enforcing them.
For Africa, the parallel is obvious. The African Continental Free Trade Area has created the framework for a single continental market, but turning that framework into an economic reality may prove much harder.
From free trade agreement to functioning market
AfCFTA began trading in 2021 with the ambition of connecting 54 countries into a market of more than 1.4 billion people. The agreement provides a foundation for reducing tariffs and improving market access, but companies still face a fragmented business environment across much of the continent.
Different customs procedures, product standards, taxes, licensing requirements, and administrative systems can raise the cost of operating across borders. For smaller companies, these barriers can be as important as tariffs themselves. That means continental integration is ultimately an institutional challenge. Governments need to make national systems compatible enough for businesses to treat neighboring countries as accessible markets rather than entirely separate operating environments.
Infrastructure is the physical test
China’s experience also highlights the importance of infrastructure. A unified market cannot function efficiently if roads, railways, ports and energy networks stop at administrative borders. This remains a major problem in Africa. The UN Economic Commission for Africa has warned that inadequate transport infrastructure and weak transport services could limit the benefits African countries expect from AfCFTA. Poor connectivity raises logistics costs, lengthens delivery times and makes it harder for landlocked economies to reach regional and global markets. The issue is particularly important in Central Africa, where difficult terrain, long distances and limited transport links have historically kept national economies relatively disconnected from one another. Regional corridors such as the Lobito Corridor show what a different model could look like. Connecting mining regions with ports can reduce transport costs and create new opportunities for trade and investment. But individual corridors will have limited impact if they remain isolated projects rather than parts of a broader regional transport network.
The capital problem
Infrastructure is only part of the challenge. Building a continental market also requires capital capable of financing projects that cross national borders and generate returns over long periods.
This is where Africa faces a structural disadvantage. Many governments have limited fiscal space, while regional infrastructure projects can involve complex risks that are difficult to allocate among several countries. Private investors may also hesitate when regulations, currency regimes and political conditions differ sharply across borders.
China’s experience suggests that integration requires sustained investment over time rather than a single infrastructure push. Africa will need financing models capable of supporting roads, railways, ports, power systems and digital networks as interconnected assets.
The role of the private sector
A larger market matters only if African companies can use it.
For many businesses, especially smaller firms, crossing a border can still involve significant costs and administrative uncertainty. AfCFTA therefore needs to become more than a framework for governments. It has to become a practical tool for companies seeking customers, suppliers and investment opportunities across the continent That means simplifying customs procedures, improving digital trade systems, harmonizing standards and making cross-border payments easier. It also means ensuring that smaller businesses are not excluded from regional trade simply because they lack the resources to navigate complex regulations.
What Africa should learn from China
The lesson from China is not that Africa should replicate its political or economic system. The more useful lesson is that market integration is a process rather than a declaration.
China spent decades developing the infrastructure, institutions and incentives that allowed its domestic economy to operate increasingly as one market. Africa is attempting a similar transformation across sovereign states with very different economic structures and levels of development. That makes the challenge considerably harder.
Yet Africa also has an advantage China did not have at the beginning of its own transformation: the continent already has a formal continental framework in AfCFTA and regional economic communities that can serve as building blocks.
The question is whether governments can align those systems closely enough to make the framework work in practice.
China’s experience shows that a huge population does not automatically create a huge functioning market. Africa already has the scale. What it still needs is the connectivity, common rules and financial architecture that can turn that scale into economic power.
The next stage of African integration will therefore be measured less by the number of agreements signed than by how easily a company, a truck, a shipment or a payment can cross a border.
That is when Africa’s continental market will stop being a policy ambition and start becoming an economic reality.
