The African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) Africa Trade Gateway (ATG), a pioneering digital platform aimed at transforming intra-African trade, launched in Rwanda on Wednesday, marking a major step toward the continent’s digital economic integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Developed in collaboration with the AfCFTA Secretariat, the ATG is a one-stop digital ecosystem connecting buyers, sellers, financiers, and logistics providers across Africa. By streamlining trade and payment processes, the platform is expected to help lift intra-African trade, which still accounts for less than 15 percent of the continent’s total commerce.
“The Africa Trade Gateway represents more than technology; it symbolizes Africa’s readiness to define its own digital destiny,” Chief Technical Advisor at Rwanda’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, Alexis Kabayiza said.
“As we deepen our integration under the AfCFTA, let us ensure that digital trade becomes a cornerstone of industrialization, inclusion, and resilience. Rwanda stands ready to play its part as a committed partner, a digital innovator, and a champion of continental cooperation,” Kabayiza added.
The launch event at the Kigali Marriott Hotel brought together senior officials from Afreximbank, Real Sources Africa, diplomats, and entrepreneurs from Rwanda’s private sector, underscoring the country’s growing role as a regional innovation hub.
Emeka Onyia, Director of Digital Banking at Afreximbank, described the platform as a transformative milestone in Africa’s economic journey. “The Africa Trade Gateway is a game-changer for African trade. It is the boldest economic project of our time and it is Africa’s gateway to transformation,” he said.
“Intra-African trade still accounts for less than 15 percent of our total trade. We don’t trade enough with ourselves. This is the perfect place to take the Africa Trade Gateway to the next level, from concept to community, from potential to impact.”
The Africa Trade Gateway integrates Afreximbank’s suite of digital trade tools, including the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which allows instant cross-border payments in local currencies, and the African Trade Exchange (ATEX), a digital marketplace that connects suppliers and buyers of goods and services across the continent.
Together, these systems are designed to eliminate foreign exchange bottlenecks, reduce trade costs, and accelerate the movement of goods across borders, key barriers that have long hindered Africa’s trade competitiveness.
“The ATG represents far more than a system, it is the gateway to Africa’s next economic era,” CEO of Real Sources Africa, Felix Kabara Chege said. “Africa’s trade future is digital, integration is achievable, and the Africa Trade Gateway is the highway that will get us there.”
The initiative builds on Afreximbank’s broader digital finance agenda, which includes projects such as the MANSA digital repository for due diligence and the Afreximbank Trade Information Portal. Together, these tools form the backbone of the bank’s strategy to digitalize trade, enhance transparency, and support the operationalization of the AfCFTA, a framework projected to boost Africa’s income by more than $450 billion by 2035, according to the World Bank.
Rwanda, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies and an early adopter of digital governance, has positioned itself as a testing ground for trade innovation. From paperless customs to smart logistics, the country has sought to fuse technology with trade policy to attract investment and support regional integration.
Hosting the ATG launch reinforces Kigali’s ambitions to anchor itself as a continental hub for fintech and e-commerce, while deepening its alignment with Afreximbank’s goal of modernizing Africa’s trade infrastructure.
By connecting exporters, importers, and financiers under one digital roof, the ATG seeks to reduce costs, expand access to finance, and create efficiency gains for businesses across the continent. Organizers urged African companies to join the system and leverage Afreximbank’s integrated trade tools to scale operations and enter new markets. For policymakers, the platform offers a pathway to monitor trade flows more transparently and strengthen regional value chains.
As Africa pushes ahead with its vision of a single, integrated market, the Africa Trade Gateway’s rollout in Rwanda represents more than the deployment of a digital system, it marks a shift in how the continent organizes its commerce. For decades, fragmented systems and high trade barriers constrained Africa’s ability to trade with itself. Now, with Afreximbank’s digital infrastructure coming online, Africa’s trade future and its digital destiny are being written from within.
