Nigeria has hosted Africa's first AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol Hackathon, bringing together tech innovators, researchers, and trade experts to create practical solutions for trade barriers affecting the informal sector and small businesses.
The event, held as part of the 2025 Science of Trade (SOT) Conference in Lagos, focused on using innovation to tackle longstanding trade issues such as poor logistics, infrastructure gaps, complicated documentation, and lack of product certification.
Olusegun Olutayo, a senior trade expert at the Nigerian AfCFTA Coordination Office, said the hackathon aimed to spark homegrown solutions to real trade challenges and bridge the digital divide affecting millions of African traders and SMEs.
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"This is about more than policy," Olutayo said. "We're creating tools that solve real problems—like helping informal businesses access markets, get financing, and make digital payments."
He noted that the event focused on seven key barriers to trade, and highlighted the importance of platforms like the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which allows cross-border transactions in local currencies and removes the need to convert naira to dollars for trade with other African countries.
Olutayo added that a dedicated research budget would help scale the winning innovations from the hackathon, as Nigeria shifts focus to intra-African trade under the AfCFTA framework, seeking to reduce costs and open new markets for local businesses.
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