Help Nigerian SMEs Trade Across Africa Under the AfCFTA

The African Continental Free Trade Area came into effect in 2021 and progressively removes tariffs across 54 countries. Nigerian small businesses exporting to Ghana, Kenya, or Côte d'Ivoire should benefit — but compliance complexity, documentation requirements, and unfamiliarity with partner country regulations mean most SMEs never try. Your challenge is to design a cross-border trade facilitation platform for Nigerian SMEs that simplifies AfCFTA compliance. It must guide a trader through customs documentation, show applicable tariff rates by country and product, and connect them with verified freight forwarders and payment solutions in target markets. Submit a product concept (max 12 pages) including: the user journey for a first-time cross-border exporter, the data sources for tariff and regulatory information, how documentation is generated, integration with payment and logistics partners, and a launch plan for three initial export corridors. Judging criteria: 35% simplification of compliance complexity, 30% data accuracy and currency, 20% payment and logistics integration, 15% market entry plan.