African leaders have made a strong case for placing women at the heart of the African Continental Free Trade Area, warning that the continent’s ambition to create the world’s largest single market will fail unless governments remove the structural barriers facing female entrepreneurs and traders.

Speaking at the 2026 HerAfCFTA Regional Conference in Abuja, AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, Nigeria’s Trade and Investment Minister Jumoke Oduwole and UN Assistant Secretary-General Ahunna Eziakonwa said women already form the backbone of Africa’s informal and small business economy but remain shut out of the policies, financing and infrastructure needed to scale up.

Eziakonwa described a global environment of fractured supply chains and rising protectionism, arguing Africa could no longer rely on external markets, and warned that every day of delay meant lost trade and jobs. She urged governments to harmonies’ regulations, simplify customs, modernise logistics and build interoperable digital payments, declaring that while others built walls, Africa chose bridges.

Mene said African women showed extraordinary entrepreneurial capacity, noting that 83 per cent of Nigerian women identify as entrepreneurs, well above the continental average, and that women make up about 74 per cent of informal cross-border traders in West Africa, facilitating billions of dollars in ECOWAS trade despite harassment and a financing gap estimated at $49 billion.

Oduwole called the case for centering women an existential one, noting they own more than half of Africa’s small enterprises, while cautioning against treating women as a single homogeneous group. She pledged Nigeria’s commitment to policies enabling women-owned businesses to expand beyond domestic markets.