Image: Prof Benard Odoh,
African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs are losing an estimated $38 billion in export opportunities annually, highlighting the continent’s continued marginalisation in global trade despite strong international demand for African products.
The scale of the loss was outlined by Professor Benard Odoh, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of trade platform Valcertra, who said Africa currently accounts for just three percent of global trade volumes, a reflection of deep structural constraints rather than a lack of productive capacity.
Speaking at the Valcertra Business Summit in Abuja, Odoh attributed the missed export potential to persistent bottlenecks across Africa’s trade ecosystem, including weak export infrastructure, fragmented regulatory systems and limited trade facilitation support for SMEs.
He called on governments and private sector stakeholders to intensify policy reforms, strengthen export infrastructure and invest in capacity-building programmes that would enable African SMEs to compete more effectively in international markets.
Addressing trust and compliance gaps
Odoh said Valcertra is being positioned as a response to systemic failures that undermine African exports, noting that nearly 70 percent of African producers who attempt to export do not succeed — not because of poor product quality, but due to unreliable and opaque market access pathways.
“Each year, African SMEs lose an estimated $38 billion in export opportunities,” he said. “This is not because Africa lacks quality products or capable producers, but because trust breaks down along the trade chain through product rejections, documentation gaps, inconsistent standards and fragmented systems.”
Despite these challenges, Odoh said global appetite for African products is growing rapidly, particularly in markets across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America. Products in demand include cocoa, shea, hibiscus, spices, cashew, honey, ginger, leather goods and handicrafts.
“What has been missing is a single trusted gateway that guarantees quality, compliance, traceability and predictable delivery,” he said. “That is the gap Valcertra was created to close.”
Platform launch planned for 2026
Valcertra, which is currently undergoing stakeholder testing, is expected to be formally launched by early 2026. Odoh described it as Nigeria’s first verified export gateway, designed to connect African manufacturers, farmers and traders directly to buyers in the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.
The platform is structured to comply with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework, including the requirement for a minimum of 40 percent local value transformation for exported goods.
Odoh said Valcertra has been designed as a full-stack trade infrastructure, purpose-built to address long-standing export constraints across documentation, certification, quality assurance and market access.
Institutional backing for export readiness
The Abuja summit drew participation from key public and private institutions, including the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Bank of Industry (BoI), Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the AfCFTA Secretariat, alongside manufacturers, farmers and traders.
Speaking at the event, Dr Emmanuel Ojowuro, Group Head for Product Development and Innovation at the Bank of Industry, said the institution has supported local businesses for more than six decades to enhance export capacity.
Ojowuro noted that BoI provides financing, advisory services and technical support to micro, small and medium enterprises to ensure that locally produced goods meet international export standards.
He stressed that BoI financing is strictly tied to compliance. “We do not fund indiscriminately,” Ojowuro said. “Only products that meet health, quality and export requirements are eligible for financing.”
He added that this compliance-focused approach was a key reason BoI is engaging Valcertra for validation and value-adding certification services, ensuring that Nigerian exports entering global markets meet required standards.