AfCFTA, Quest Ghana Sign $5.17bn Deal for Digital Trade Corridor
AfCFTA and Quest Ghana have signed a $5.17bn joint venture to build digital trade infrastructure connecting African markets, payments and commodities.
By GLEBM News Desk
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and Ghanaian technology company Quest Ghana Limited have signed a joint venture agreement to establish a $5.17 billion AfCFTA Digital Trade Corridor, in a major move aimed at transforming cross-border trade and digital commerce across Africa.
The agreement, signed on August 31, 2026, in Accra, is designed to provide digital infrastructure that will connect African businesses and markets while making trade, payments, logistics and commodity transactions more efficient.
Quest Ghana Limited values the project at US$5.17 billion, according to the AfCFTA Secretariat.
The Republic of Seychelles will provide sovereign support for the venture and host its headquarters in Victoria, the country’s capital.
The agreement follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the parties in March 2026 and formal approval granted by the Seychelles Cabinet in July, paving the way for the joint venture to move from planning to implementation.
Digital infrastructure to drive African trade
Under the agreement, the joint venture will design, develop and operate a range of digital trade infrastructure intended to support businesses across the continent.
The project will include a digital African Minerals and Commodities Exchange, a continental digital marketplace, interoperable cross-border payment systems and logistics infrastructure.
It will also provide digital platforms for the trading, tracking and settlement of minerals and commodities across African markets.
The initiative is expected to help address some of the longstanding barriers to intra-African commerce, including fragmented payment systems, inefficient logistics and difficulties in connecting buyers and sellers across national borders.
The project is being developed against the backdrop of AfCFTA’s broader ambition to deepen economic integration and increase intra-African trade from about $200 billion to $500 billion and beyond.
AfCFTA: Digital infrastructure critical to trade
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Accra, AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene said digital infrastructure would be central to unlocking the economic potential of the continental free trade agreement.
He described the initiative as a move from policy development towards practical implementation of digital trade infrastructure.
Mene said the corridor would help African businesses, particularly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, youth and women traders, participate more effectively in cross-border commerce.
The AfCFTA Secretary-General also said Africa traded more than $220 billion in goods and services in 2024, with a growing share of manufactured and value-added production.
According to the AfCFTA Secretariat, the Digital Trade Corridor is intended to provide the infrastructure needed to make the continent’s single-market ambitions more commercially practical.
Seychelles to host continental venture
Seychelles will play a central role in the initiative by providing sovereign support and hosting the joint venture’s headquarters in Victoria.
Seychelles’ Minister for Finance, Economic Planning, Trade and Investment, Pierre Laporte, said the country viewed the initiative as an opportunity to contribute to Africa’s economic integration and digital transformation.
Laporte said Seychelles’ position as a bridge between African, Indian Ocean and international markets made it well placed to host the venture.
The government secured Cabinet approval for the project in July following the March MoU.
Quest Ghana: Project will connect African markets
Quest Ghana Executive Chairman Philip Gamey said the company was partnering with the AfCFTA Secretariat and Seychelles to create infrastructure capable of supporting the next generation of African commerce.
The proposed system will bring together digital marketplaces, payments, logistics and commodity trading infrastructure in an effort to make cross-border transactions more transparent and efficient.
Gamey said the initiative was designed not only for large multinational companies but also for small businesses and traders across Africa.
Payment systems at the centre of the initiative
One of the key components of the Digital Trade Corridor will be the development of interoperable cross-border payment systems.
The objective is to make it easier for African businesses to conduct transactions across borders without unnecessary reliance on third-country financial systems and currencies.
Mene said the initiative could help retain more value within African economies by facilitating payments within the continent and supporting the use of local currencies.
However, the AfCFTA Secretariat clarified that the initiative does not replace the authority of national central banks over exchange-rate determination. Each country’s central bank will continue to determine its applicable exchange rate.
Built around a 1.4 billion-person market
The Digital Trade Corridor forms part of the wider vision of the AfCFTA, which brings together the 55 African Union member states into a single market of about 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP of approximately $3.4 trillion.
The AfCFTA Agreement entered into force on May 30, 2019, and is one of the flagship initiatives under the African Union’s Agenda 2063 development strategy.
By developing digital infrastructure around trade, payments, logistics and commodities, the new corridor is expected to support the broader effort to make the continental free trade area more accessible to businesses.
From trade agreement to digital commerce
The signing represents another step in the evolution of AfCFTA from a framework for reducing trade barriers into an ecosystem supported by digital infrastructure.
For African businesses, particularly SMEs that often face higher costs when trading across borders, improved access to digital marketplaces, payment systems and logistics could help reduce some of the practical barriers to continental commerce.
The success of the initiative, however, will depend on implementation, regulatory cooperation, investment in digital infrastructure and the ability of businesses across African countries to adopt and use the new systems.
With the joint venture now formally established, the focus shifts from agreement to implementation as AfCFTA and Quest Ghana begin work on building the infrastructure intended to support the next phase of intra-African trade.
