Africa’s projected 4% growth rate this year arrives against a backdrop of US tariffs at their highest in over a century, persistent Middle Eastern conflict disrupting energy supplies and shipping routes, and a multilateral trading system under serious strain. Yet the continent is expanding, and intra-African trade surged more than 12% in 2025.
That momentum was the central subject at the Standard Bank Africa Unlocked 2026 conference, a two-day gathering in Cape Town that concluded Friday. Now in its third edition, the event brought together more than 140 business leaders, policymakers, investors and entrepreneurs from across the continent and key global markets. Hosted by Standard Bank Business and Commercial Banking under the theme Built in Africa: Amplifying Continental Growth, the conference focused on the practical actions required to accelerate trade, investment and sustainable economic growth.
Bill Blackie, Standard Bank Group Chief Executive for Business and Commercial Banking, delivered the optimistic assessment on Thursday. He pointed to a structural shift in how African businesses operate: his clients trading across the continent now conduct more commerce with each other than with any single external partner, including China, the United States or the European Union. That is something more durable than cyclical momentum.
The numbers back the claim. Intra-African trade reached approximately $220 billion last year, according to figures from the African Trade Report. The African Continental Free Trade Area now includes 47 countries, making it the largest free trade area by number of participants in the world. Pension assets across Africa have exceeded $1 trillion, providing a substantial capital base for future investment.
Blackie pointed to concrete execution at scale. Hungry Lion, a fast-food operator, presented an ambition two years ago at the same Cape Town conference to open 100 stores annually across Africa. That target is now operational reality. The company has opened more than 500 stores across nine countries, employing 10,000 people, and is on track to open 250 additional stores this year, bringing the total to 750 by year-end. Determined execution, built for African consumers and scaled across the continent.
Large infrastructure projects reveal the ecosystem approach that continental growth requires. The Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, which Standard Bank’s regional chief executive for West Africa recently visited, operates as a world-class facility. Projects of that magnitude are never single-business operations. They function as ecosystems encompassing hundreds of suppliers, contractors and logistics operators. Standard Bank’s team in Nigeria has supported 300 businesses within the Dangote value chain, providing solutions needed to deliver and sustain operations at that facility.
That ecosystem capability changes what becomes possible for clients and for the economies they serve. As Blackie explained, when financial institutions understand the networks around a client and support them across relationships, platforms and structures, value moves across borders, sectors and stages of growth. Banks can then stay with clients through their entire journey, from initial working capital facilities through cross-border expansion and access to global pools of capital.
Meanwhile, African businesses are renegotiating their terms of engagement with China, India and the Gulf states, shifting from raw material exporters to value-added partners. International trade remains one of the most powerful engines of African economic prosperity, though what matters extends beyond any single mechanism to what that access makes possible.
Lungisa Fuzile, Standard Bank’s Chief Executive for Africa Regions Offshore, described the gathering as giving Africa “a moment to pause, reflect and focus on what truly matters.” He emphasized that the focus centers on helping African entrepreneurs build momentum, scale with confidence and turn complexity into possibility. The themes shaping Africa’s future, he noted, include job creation, energy, infrastructure development and governance. What differs now, he said, is tangible progress: infrastructure projects completed and commissioned, governance frameworks strengthened and Africans taking charge of their destiny.
Fuzile also underscored that Africa’s greatest resource extends beyond natural resources to its people. He described the banker’s role not as creator but as amplifier, picking up the signal of entrepreneurial talent and making it strong. Standard Bank, as Africa’s largest bank by assets, operates as deeply embedded in the financial systems of the countries where it works. Its stated purpose is to provide the skills, connections and capital that enable real-economy impact.
The question the conference leaves open is whether the ecosystem infrastructure, the trade finance, the value-chain support, the cross-border platforms, can scale fast enough to match the ambition.