Namibia’s businesses struggle to access African market

Despite access to a continental market of more than 1.3 billion people, Namibian businesses continue to face difficulties accessing trading opportunities because of limited market information, export readiness and complicated regulatory procedures.

This emerged on Monday when the Ministry of International Relations and Trade, in collaboration with the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), launched the Namibia Step-by-Step Guide to Trading Goods under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Windhoek.

The guide is intended to help local businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), understand the procedures for exporting and importing goods under the continental trade agreement.

Speaking at the launch, UNECA Subregional Office for Southern Africa director Eunice Kamwendo said businesses were struggling with fragmented trade information, limited production capacity and the requirements for meeting product standards and customs procedures.

She said access to preferential markets alone was not enough to guarantee that Namibian businesses would benefit from the agreement. “Governments negotiate trade agreements, but businesses trade,” Kamwendo said. She explained that companies must identify potential markets, meet product standards, understand rules of origin and obtain the necessary certificates and documentation before they can successfully export their products.

Kamwendo said market access must be supported by market intelligence, potential buyers, trade finance, logistics and business-to-business connections.

The AfCFTA provides Namibia with access to a continental market of more than 1.3 billion people, creating opportunities for local companies to expand beyond their traditional markets in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

However, the benefits are not automatic.

Kamwendo said information on trading procedures was often technical, fragmented and spread across different institutions, making it difficult for small businesses, particularly women- and youth-owned enterprises, to participate in continental trade. The new guide brings together information on business registration, product classification, customs procedures, certificates of origin, export permits and other regulatory requirements.

It also provides information on continental trade tools that businesses can use to identify markets, check tariffs and report trade barriers.

Namibia signed the AfCFTA agreement in July 2018 and ratified it in January 2019. The agreement officially commenced trading in January 2021.

The country launched its National AfCFTA Implementation Strategy in November 2022 and gazetted its provisional tariff concession schedule in December 2024. In June 2025, Namibia made its first export consignment under the agreement when Walvis Bay Salt Company exported salt to Nigeria. The Ministry’s Executive Director, Jerobeam Shaanika , said the launch of the guide was an important step in helping local businesses move from understanding the agreement to using it to access new markets.

He said one of the challenges identified during Namibia’s implementation process was that information on exporting and importing was scattered across different government institutions and regulatory agencies.

“A small business in Namibia should not be excluded from continental trade simply because it lacks the resources to obtain information that ought to be readily accessible,” he said.

Shaanika said the guide was developed to make trade information more accessible and help businesses understand the requirements before entering the African market. The guide was developed by the Ministry in collaboration with NCCI, with technical support from UNECA and financial support from the Government of Japan. Kamwendo said the success of the guide should be measured by whether it resulted in more Namibian businesses exporting, entering new African markets and creating economic opportunities.

She urged stakeholders to ensure that the publication reaches the businesses for which it was developed rather than allowing it to remain unused after its launch.

– [email protected]

The post Namibia’s businesses struggle to access African market appeared first on New Era.