Agrifood development in West Africa is pulling other sectors along with it, including textiles and crafts, generating a genuine local circular economy. An unexpected connection? Not really. By making better use of agricultural raw materials and combining them with artisanal expertise, SMEs create products with strong local added value.

Artisanal and eco-friendly packaging is a concrete example. Women’s cooperatives in Burkina Faso make bags from jute fibre or local cotton to package cacao or coffee, replacing imported sacks. In Senegal, young entrepreneurs design packaging from recycled paper and pineapple fibres for local fruit juices, combining artisanal appeal with food-grade requirements. This kind of “made in Africa” packaging tells a story and attracts customers seeking authenticity, while keeping added value in the country.

The textile sector also benefits from synergies with agriculture: cotton, a major Sahelian export crop (Mali, Burkina Faso), can feed local textile and garment industries. A number of Ivorian and Ghanaian SMEs are making bags, aprons and clothing from local cotton and natural plant dyes (indigo, hibiscus). These items highlight the agriculture-craft link: for example, a woven fabric bag containing coffee or cacao is both packaging and a craftwork that can be showcased at trade fairs.

Trade fairs and international shows play a catalysing role in promoting this local added value. The Salon International de l’Agriculture et des Ressources Animales d’Abidjan (SARA) is a prime example: the 2023 edition attracted more than 320,000 visitors over 10 days, bringing together 800 exhibitors from 30 countries — farmers, craftspeople and agro-industrialists. SMEs present not only their raw products (e.g. cajou, mangoes) but also their processed goods and derivative items (textiles, cosmetics, crafts). These events generate significant economic spin-offs: at SARA more than 1,300 B2B meetings took place in 2023, leading to export contracts and technology partnerships. Likewise, the FIARA in Dakar (international agriculture fair) welcomes thousands of visitors each year and a host of artisans — leather workers using local hide, calabash sculptors, designers of adapted farming tools — who interact directly with farmers and entrepreneurs. These exchanges spur local innovation: an artisan might, for instance, design a better solar dryer for fruit after talking with mango producers at a show.

Finally, the impact on income and employment is worth highlighting. Local processing and crafts retain a greater share of wealth within rural communities. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, an artisan chocolatier cacao sector is emerging: local chocolate makers are turning beans into bars sold through short supply chains (tourist shops, airports), which can multiply the revenue per kilo by three or four compared to selling raw beans. Agri-artisanal tourism is also developing: plantation visits with natural textile dyeing workshops, tastings and demonstrations of jam-making or shea butter production. This creates local employment, particularly for young people and women, and preserves traditional know-how (indigo dyeing, traditional weaving, basket-making) by giving it new outlets tied to agribusiness.

By combining agriculture, crafts and creative industry, West African SMEs are developing original models. This strengthens the made in Africa brand — an asset for standing out in a standardised global market. In 2025 more than ever, betting on local added value (whether through packaging design, the artisanal quality of a product or the cultural story it carries) is a recipe for success and sustainable growth for African SMEs.

Logistics remains the critical challenge for agrifood SMEs in West Africa. Significant progress has been made in recent years, but hurdles remain in 2025: high transport costs, slow customs procedures and sometimes inadequate infrastructure.

On average, logistics costs in sub-Saharan Africa are 4 to 6 times higher than in other emerging economies. Shipping a container from the port to the interior of the country, for instance, costs far more and takes far longer than in Asia or Europe. The result: West African exporters see their products become more expensive and lose competitiveness.

The most common logistics bottlenecks include port congestion (notably in Lagos/Apapa, where ships could wait days to unload), slow and complex customs procedures, and poor road quality on some corridors linking production basins to ports. A shipping delay of several weeks can cause an export window to be missed, especially for perishable goods.

SMEs, with their limited resources, are particularly hard hit by delays and extra costs (unexpected storage fees, late penalties, etc.).

Fortunately, solutions are emerging. On the infrastructure front, new investments are changing the picture. In Nigeria, the Lekki deep-water port began commercial operations in 2023, with an initial capacity of 1.2 million containers per year. This modern port relieves congestion at Lagos and offers berths suited to larger vessels, cutting transit times and transhipment costs.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the port of Abidjan has opened a second container terminal and is breaking traffic records (40 million tonnes in 2024) thanks to these investments.

The Abidjan-Lagos corridor — which will connect five countries via a 1,080 km motorway — is being prepared to facilitate regional trade. Once completed, these projects will cut transit times and boost intra-community exchanges (a container will be able to travel from Dakar to Accra much faster than today).

At the same time, digitalisation is transforming logistics and customs. Electronic single windows for foreign trade are increasingly becoming the norm. The IMO (International Maritime Organization) required all ports to have electronic port windows in place before 2024, to speed up and standardise formalities.

In Senegal, the ORBUS platform allows operators to submit all import-export documents online, cutting down on administrative back-and-forth.

In Ghana, the shift to a paperless customs system and electronic tax payment has reduced clearance times from several days to a few hours in some cases (notably at Tema).

Côte d’Ivoire and Benin likewise use electronic GPS tracking systems for cargo and electronically seal containers to combat fraud and speed up transit.

Logistics startups are also part of this transformation. Platforms such as Kobo360 (Nigeria) or SEND (Côte d’Ivoire) connect shippers and carriers via mobile applications, optimising truck load capacity and negotiating rates transparently.

While some early movers have faced difficulties, the “uberisation” of freight transport is taking shape, reducing empty runs and cost per kilometre.

Other innovations, such as IoT solutions (temperature sensors in refrigerated trucks, satellite trackers), help SMEs guarantee the cold chain and give their customers real-time visibility on delivery status.

The improvements in companies’ internal logistics chains are also worth mentioning. In 2025, a growing number of SMEs are adopting computerised management systems for stock and orders, including in the agrifood sector. Simple tablet applications allow a mango exporter, for example, to track harvests village by village, organise collection by van via WhatsApp, and have instant visibility on their packed stock ready to ship to the airport.

This internal digitalisation boosts efficiency and reduces waste (collection routes are optimised, cardboard box requirements are anticipated, etc.).

At the customs level, training and equipment efforts are bearing fruit. Container scanners are multiplying at the ports of Abidjan, Lomé and Cotonou, speeding up inspections.

Customs officers now use mobile terminals for inspections, eliminating the long waits of the past. Electronic phytosanitary certificate procedures (e-Phyto) between pilot countries (Ghana, Senegal…) and the EU are being tested, which could eliminate delays caused by paper-based submissions.

Another step forward: the pooling of land border controls (juxtaposed posts) is beginning to take shape within ECOWAS to ease the flow of inter-state truck traffic.

West African logistics in 2025 is in the midst of a major shift. Investment in ports (such as Lekki in Nigeria and the Abidjan expansion) and road corridors is gradually reducing the region’s cost-time disadvantage.

Customs 2.0 and digital tools are bringing transparency and efficiency, benefiting above all the SMEs that were the first to suffer from the old bottlenecks.

There is still ground to cover before logistics standards match those of Asia or Europe, but momentum is building — and the most agile SMEs are already capitalising on it to deliver faster, at lower cost, from field to international shelves.