Trade Without Friction In Africa

Connecting East Africa’s Trade and Logistics Corridors

Published Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Connecting East Africa’s Trade and Logistics Corridors

On 11th and 12th May 2026, Kenya and France will co-host Africa Forward 2026 in Nairobi

A summit built around a simple but important idea,
“Africa is no longer waiting. It is building.”

Heads of State, business leaders, and innovators will come together to shape what that actually looks like in practice—particularly across trade, investment, and partnerships.

But before that conversation happens in May, there’s a more immediate question worth sitting with:

What’s actually slowing trade between Europe and Kenya?

If you’re working across Europe–East Africa trade corridors, you’ve probably felt this tension already.

On paper, things look like they’re moving.

Trade between Kenya and Europe is now valued around €3 billion.
The Port of Mombasa is handling more cargo every year with 2025, volume reaching 45 million metric tonnes of cargo

Those are not small numbers.

But speak to operators on the ground, and you’ll hear a different story:

It should be higher. Much higher.

So where is it breaking?

It’s easy to point at policy.
But that’s not really where the constraint is.

The friction is inside the system.

A 2026 report by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers points to something many businesses are already dealing with—
logistics costs that are not just high, but unpredictable, to the point of eroding the gains from tariff reductions.

The Shippers Council of Eastern Africa also report that logistics costs can take up 30–40% of total product value.

And when you look closer, the pattern becomes clear:

Too many overlapping agencies in cargo clearance
Logistics costs climbing to 35–42% of landed cost
Timelines that stretch from days into weeks
Systems that don’t speak to each other
Digital integration that still isn’t there

What that actually means

For exporters, investors, and logistics operators, this doesn’t show up as a theory.

It shows up as:

Unpredictability.

And that’s the real constraint.

Because trade doesn’t scale where movement is just possible—
it scales where movement is reliable.

Which means the conversation needs to shift

For a long time, the focus has been on infrastructure.
And that mattered.

But now the bottleneck looks different.

It’s coordination.
It’s execution.

From infrastructure → to coordination
From access → to execution

Why this conversation now

On April 23, together with LUUMA Africa and Global Chamber Mombasa, we’re bringing together people who are actually working inside these systems across logistics, trade, and investment.

Not to talk theory.

But to look directly at what’s breaking and what’s starting to work.

Trade Without Friction: Connecting East Africa’s Trade and Logistics Corridors

If you’re operating in this space or trying to enter it
this is probably a conversation you want to be in.

https://shorturl.at/LHEdX

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