Africa’s integration agenda risks falling short unless it prioritises people alongside trade, a senior official at the African Union Development Agencyhas warned.

Idriss Adoum, Senior Director for Economy, Infrastructure, Industrialisation, Trade and Regional Integration at AUDA-NEPAD, said while the continent has made significant progress in building trade frameworks, it has not done enough to enable Africans themselves to move, work and live across borders.

“Africa has done serious work on trade architecture… but the question is integration for who?” Adoum said during an African Union Day webinar hosted by the Africa Prosperity Network on Monday (25 May).

He noted that instruments such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) represent historic milestones, but argued that economic integration is advancing faster than human mobility.

“If goods can move faster than students, workers, artists, entrepreneurs and families, then we have built a market, but not yet a community,” he said.

Adoum highlighted what he described as a “paradox” in Africa’s integration drive, where trade agreements have been widely ratified while the AU’s Free Movement Protocol lags behind.

“We have accelerated trade integration, but delayed human integration — and that is the problem,” he said.

He added that despite growing intra-African migration, legal, educational and administrative systems have failed to keep pace with the realities of cross-border lives.

“A young African can move but may not have their qualifications recognised… a professional may find an opportunity but face work permit restrictions,” he said.

Adoum also stressed the importance of cultural and social integration, arguing that Africa’s unity cannot be achieved through policy frameworks alone.

“Integration is not only about borders, it is also about imagination,” he said, warning that external control of media narratives weakens a shared African identity.

He called for investment in continent-wide mobility programmes, including an African equivalent of Europe’s Erasmus exchange scheme, to allow students and young professionals to move across borders at scale.

“We cannot build African integration only through summits… treaties may create the legal space, but people create the political reality,” he said.

Adoum urged governments to prioritise recognition of academic qualifications, cross-border public service exchanges, and African-owned media platforms to strengthen integration.

“The question is not whether Africa has a common identity… the question is whether we are willing to finance the platforms that allow Africans to live that identity,” he said.