Last Thursday evening, I had the privilege of being the Guest Speaker at the Rotary Club of Lavington Nairobi, Kenya. It was one of those gatherings where people arrive ready to engage. The room had a genuine curiosity about the continent and a seriousness about what it will take for Africa to rise.
The conversation deepened when former Permanent Secretary Abdi Dubat, who now advises the President on regional integration, joined in. His contributions reminded everyone that regional integration is not an abstract idea. It is a daily effort involving systems, politics, and the practical realities of moving goods, services, and people across borders.
There was a moment that stayed with me. President Njoki Kariuki, who had invited me to speak, shared that she had been advocating for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) since 2018, especially for youth and women. She explained that she had stepped back after running into endless frustrations with government processes. She said the discussion that night reminded her why she began that journey and why she should not let it fade. Hearing that from someone who has been in the trenches of advocacy brought home the point that AfCFTA is not just a continental project. It is a promise that only becomes real when people at the community level can feel its impact.
Africa is building a single market of 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP of 3.4 trillion dollars. It is the most ambitious economic step the continent has taken since independence. Yet African countries still trade more with Europe and Asia than with each other. Intra Africa trade remains around sixteen percent while Europe sits at about sixty five percent.
The numbers matter, but they do not tell the whole truth. The real test of AfCFTA is simple. Does it create opportunity for ordinary people?
If it does not help the trader in Gikomba, the manufacturer in Industrial Area, the tech entrepreneur in Lavington, or the farmer in Nyeri, then it becomes just another impressive document that changes nothing.
Kenya is well positioned to benefit. It is a logistics hub, a financial centre, a technology leader, and a country full of entrepreneurs. But it is also a country built on MSMEs. They make up ninety eight percent of all businesses and employ more than eighty percent of the workforce. These are the people who carry the economy, yet they remain largely disconnected from continental markets.
A Kenyan company can ship goods to Europe faster than it can ship to West Africa. A Kenyan entrepreneur can find investors in Dubai more easily than in Dakar. A Kenyan farmer can export tea to London more easily than to Nigeria. This is not because Africans do not want to trade with each other. It is because our systems were never designed for it.
AfCFTA is trying to change that. Not overnight, but deliberately.
The opportunities are real. Kenyan products can reach new markets. Young people can build digital services for the continent, not just for Nairobi. Women who dominate the informal sector can scale their businesses beyond our borders. And when local businesses grow, communities grow with them. Jobs increase. Skills deepen. Income stabilises. Dignity expands.
But none of this happens automatically. AfCFTA is a door. Someone has to open it.
Kenya will need better logistics, simpler customs procedures, affordable regional transport, common standards, access to finance, and digital platforms that connect buyers and sellers across borders. We also need to remove the non tariff barriers that make moving across Africa harder than moving across continents.
This is where civic networks like Rotary matter. Rotary brings together people who understand business, community, and service. People who mentor young entrepreneurs. People who can help MSMEs become export ready. People who can build partnerships across African Rotary clubs and create real business bridges. People who can help demystify AfCFTA for the many who have never heard of it. And people whose voices carry weight when advocating for simpler and more transparent trade systems.
Every continental vision needs a human face. For me, one of those faces is Wangoi, a young Kenyan entrepreneur in Limuru who makes organic teas. She told me she wants to sell across Africa but does not know where to start. She has the product, the passion, and the potential. What she lacks is a pathway.
AfCFTA can be that pathway if we build it well.
Africa’s future will be shaped in the places where people actually work and create. In workshops, farms, factories, tech hubs, and markets. That is where the continent’s real story is being written.
AfCFTA is a continental idea, but its success depends entirely on local meaning. On communities. On MSMEs. On youth. On women. On civic networks like Rotary. And on leaders willing to connect continental ambition to everyday reality.
If we treat AfCFTA not as a treaty but as an opportunity for our communities, if each of us supports even one MSME to explore regional markets, and if we use our networks to build African business bridges, then AfCFTA will stop being a dream. It will become a Nairobi reality. A Lavington reality. A Kenyan reality. An African reality.
And as I reflect on that evening, I return to the invitation that brought me there in the first place. Being asked to speak was not just an honour. It was a reminder that conversations like these matter. They spark old commitments back to life. They connect policy to people. They turn ideas into action. I left Rotary Lavington encouraged, because if that room is anything to go by, the continent has more than enough leaders who are ready to turn AfCFTA into something real.
