Amidst global trade disruptions, Africa's logistics planners are turning to overland trade corridors as viable alternatives. This article explores how the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the role of mobile network operators could redefine intra-African trade dynamics.
Image: Motshwari Mofokeng / Independent Newspapers
Global trade is being reshuffled.
Middle East instability and volatility in fuel costs have forced logistics planners to reassess supply chain assumptions built over decades.
Africa's overland trade corridors - the Durban–Lusaka run, the Dar es Salaam–Kigali route, the Trans-Kalahari corridor - are serious alternatives to sea freight routes.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was already pointing in this direction. Intra-African road freight volumes are forecast to grow significantly through 2031, according to UN Economic Commission for Africa data.
South Africa's freight and logistics market alone is projected to expand from $15.55 billion in 2026 to $20.59 billion by 2031 at a 5.78% CAGR, according to Mordor Intelligence's 2026 analysis.
However, for that growth to be realised, logistics and fleet operators need connectivity across borders, across networks, without interruption. Right now, most of them don't have it. And the question of whether they ever will comes down, in large part, to Africa's mobile network operators (MNOs).
Modern logistics goes beyond moving goods to knowing where those goods are, in real time, at every point in the journey.
Temperature-controlled freight needs sensor monitoring. High-value cargo needs tracking and security. Fleet managers need dashcam footage, push-to-talk communication, and live telematics. All these high-data applications need consistent connectivity, not intermittent roaming.
Internet of Things (IoT) technology makes this happen. At its simplest, the IoT is a network of physical objects - like GPS trackers, fuel sensors, or smart locks - that use software and connectivity to collect and exchange data autonomously.
These assets "talk" directly to a company’s management system. A shipping container can report a temperature spike, or a truck can signal an engine fault before a breakdown occurs.
This turns physical assets into a precise, manageable digital stream. To do this, however, IoT systems need connectivity.
A truck leaving Durban on a run to Lusaka crosses multiple borders, countries, network jurisdictions, and dozens of handover points between mobile operators.
The typical approach - a dual SIM with access to one national and one international network - creates a predictable failure: if either of those core networks drops, the vehicle disappears from the tracking platform.
For fleet managers, this isn't a minor inconvenience. It's a supply chain blind spot that can expose cargo to theft, create insurance complications, and break the data continuity that modern analytics platforms depend on.
The problem isn't coverage. Africa's major MNOs have invested significantly in network infrastructure.
The problem is the absence of uninterrupted multi-network interoperability that would allow a device to move between operators without losing connectivity or triggering expensive roaming charges.
When connectivity fails on a cross-border multi-country run, the cost doesn't just appear on a mobile network bill, it appears in the profit and loss statement.
Delayed proof-of-delivery triggers invoice disputes. Untracked freight attracts higher insurance premiums or outright coverage exclusions on high-risk corridors.
A single blind spot at Beitbridge or Chirundu can break the chain of custody that temperature-sensitive or high-value cargo requires.
For logistics operators quoting fixed-price cross-border contracts, unplanned connectivity downtime isn't a technical inconvenience - it affects revenue and productivity.
Africa's mobile operators face a structural tension that has slowed the development of IoT-enabling infrastructure.
On one side: national licensing frameworks that shape investment priorities in favour of domestic subscribers and retail revenue. On the other: the commercial reality that cross-border, high-volume IoT requires regional coordination that no single operator can deliver alone.
Roaming agreements, the mechanism that should bridge this gap, have historically been slow to negotiate, commercially unattractive for smaller operators, and technically inconsistent.
A SIM that roams in one country may be unstable in another, or be so expensive that high-data applications become commercially unviable.
For dashcams generating 30–50GB of data per device per month, roaming economics alone can make cross-border deployments impractical.
African logistics needs carriers with the buying power and commercial relationships to negotiate roaming agreements across all African countries, and infrastructure that makes multi-network connectivity automatic rather than manual.
Some operators are moving in this direction.
New pan-African carrier relationships, and multi-IMSI SIM technology - where a single SIM card carries multiple network identities and automatically connects to the strongest available network - represent a genuine architectural shift.
But the pace matters.
The AfCFTA clock is running. Logistics operators are making long-term vendor commitments in digital infrastructure.
If Africa's MNOs cannot provide the connectivity backbone, those operators will route around them. They will use connectivity solutions built on global MVNO infrastructure and negotiated carrier agreements that bypass domestic networks where possible.
The MNO opportunity in IoT isn't primarily about consumer connectivity. It's about becoming the infrastructure layer for a digitising economy.
Fleet operators, cold chain providers, agricultural exporters, mining logistics companies are high-value, high-volume, long-term accounts. Their connectivity requirements are demanding, but so is their lifetime value.
Enterprise logistics clients need 99.8%+ on Core Networks, continuously, across borders. They can’t function on 95% uptime, where 5% downtime represents the number of hours of lost visibility per week across a fleet.
MNOs that participate in multi-core network architectures, where traffic automatically reroutes when a core fails, can credibly commit to 99.8%+ uptime. Those who can't will lose business.
A less obvious but increasingly non-negotiable aspect is local data routing. Regulatory pressure around data sovereignty is building across multiple African markets, and latency benefits are real for time-sensitive applications. Operators that enable local breakout for IoT traffic aren't just ticking a compliance box - they're positioning themselves as the preferred infrastructure partner for enterprise clients who've learned to ask the right questions.
Infrastructure investment arguments are often made in abstract terms, but the IoT connectivity case is concrete. Real-time visibility reduces cargo theft. High uptime improves operational capability.
Uninterrupted telematics reduce fuel consumption through driver behavior analytics. Cold chain monitoring reduces spoilage for agricultural exporters, and improves the economics of the export businesses that AfCFTA is designed to stimulate.
These are not marginal gains. Road freight is the dominant mode of inter-country trade across the continent. The digital transformation of logistics is still in its early stages. As it matures, the compounding effect of reliable IoT connectivity across key corridors would be significant and measurable.
Africa's trade has become borderless in aspiration. The question is whether the continent's mobile infrastructure will catch up fast enough to make it borderless in practice.
The telcos that can rapidly move to put this in place - with the right commercial structures, the right technical architecture, and the right partnerships - will be the ones building the digital backbone of Africa's next decade of trade growth. Those who don't, will be routed around.
Peter Walsh is the managing director at CommsCloud.
Peter Walsh is the managing director at CommsCloud.
Image: Supplied.
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