The latest ‘Africa Trade Barometer’, which has been published yearly by financial services firm Standard Bank since 2022 and which tracks businesses' perceptions of the ease of trade in Africa, shows that trade-enabling infrastructure and business confidence are improving.

Macroeconomic indicators for the ten countries surveyed, which represent 66% to 68% of Africa's GDP, namely Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, showed a varied picture of resilience and recovery.

The average business confidence index score across the ten countries increased to 65, up from 59, signalling growing optimism among surveyed businesses, and inflation declined in seven of the ten countries in 2025.

Over the past four years the ten markets surveyed saw average GDP growth of 4% a year, compared to the global average GDP growth rate a year of 3%.

The average real GDP growth rate for the ten countries was forecasted to rise to 4.3% in 2026, said Standard Bank Groupbusiness and commercial banking head of tradePhilip Myburgh.

Seven of the ten countries also reduced their levels of sovereign debt during the past year.

Additionally, firms reported improvements across every major infrastructure category, including power, telecommunications, road, rail, ports and digital border systems.

This marks the first time since the Standard Bank Africa Trade Barometer’s launch that all infrastructure indicators have improved simultaneously, which reflects growing investment in logistics capacity and digital trade facilitation across the continent.

“In addition to the stabilising financial and macroeconomic environment, the big story is infrastructure. The question we ask businesses is how they would rate the quality of each type of infrastructure. For the first time, every infrastructure component improved year-on-year.

“The businesses surveyed indicated a significant rise in the quality of physical infrastructure as improvements in power supply and transport networks drove the average ratings up,” he said.

This trend also included trade facilitation and logistics infrastructure, as digital modernisation and strategic transport hubs enhanced the operational environment for businesses.

Digital payment methods continued to be the most commonly used tools for facilitating cross-border transactions among surveyed businesses at 78% of all cross-border sales and 79% of cross-border purchases during the past year, he said.

The broader surge in digital payments across Africa in 2025 was driven by the development of continental systems such as the operationalisation of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, which integrated with national switches to facilitate local currency settlement.

This growth was further supported by the harmonisation of regional fintech regulations, as passporting rights in the West African Economic and Monetary Union and the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa created unified regulatory territories that allowed fintechs to offer cross-border services without repetitive licensing, the report said.