The African Continental Free Trade Area removed tariffs on paper years ago. The binding constraint has always been logistics: the cost and time of moving a container from an inland factory to a working port.
Corridor projects now under construction aim at exactly that gap, linking landlocked production centres to coastal terminals with upgraded rail and consolidated customs posts.
Progress is uneven. Where a single agency controls the corridor, transit times have fallen sharply. Where responsibility is split across ministries and borders, savings evaporate at the checkpoints.
Traders describe the difference in blunt terms: paperwork, not asphalt, is what still costs them days.
