SELLING INTO
AND OUT OF AFRICA.

Reference

Fifty-four countries, eight regional trade blocs and no single answer to any question. What follows is the part that is actually shared: how payment reaches you, what a customs union changes, and why the continent is a set of markets rather than a market.

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What to know

It is not one market

AfCFTA is a free-trade agreement across most of the continent, not a customs union with one external tariff. Goods moving between member states can qualify for reduced duty, but only with proof of origin, and the rules of origin differ by product category. Treating "Africa" as a destination is the fastest way to a shipment stuck at a border.

ECOWAS — West Africa, 15 states, common external tariff
EAC — East Africa, a genuine customs union with free internal movement
SADC — Southern Africa, free trade area rather than customs union
COMESA — overlapping membership with both EAC and SADC

Getting paid is the constraint

Card penetration is low in most of the continent and mobile money is dominant in several markets. A checkout that only accepts cards is a checkout most of your buyers cannot use. Wholesale is usually settled by bank transfer, which is slower and needs the invoice to carry everything the receiving bank asks for.

M-Pesa and its equivalents move more consumer value than cards in East Africa
Currency controls in several markets limit how fast funds leave
A local settlement partner is usually faster than a correspondent bank chain

Documentation is where deals die

Pre-shipment inspection, certificates of conformity and product-specific standards marks are required in many markets and are checked at the port rather than waived. The document you did not know about is discovered when the container is already there and demurrage is running.

Certificate of Conformity — required in Nigeria, Kenya and others
Pre-shipment inspection — arranged BEFORE the goods leave
Standards marks — SONCAP, KEBS and national equivalents

What GRAJ handles and what it does not

GRAJ records the order, the parties, the terms and the settlement, and its fee is the same 5% here as anywhere. It does not clear customs and does not compute African tax — the tax engine covers the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe today, and says so rather than guessing at a rate.

Where to go next

WHERE GRAJ IS OPEN

Every country, and what is open in each one today.

Open

SELLING ACROSS A BORDER.

A cross-border sale is a domestic sale with four extra questions attached, and they are answered in a fixed order.

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CUSTOMS, WITHOUT THE SURPRISES.

Almost every customs problem is a document problem, and almost every document problem was created weeks before the goods moved.

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THE 5% FEE

What GRAJ takes when a transaction goes through, what it covers, and how it compares.