Every year, unsafe food takes a devastating toll on Africa’s people and economies. Foodborne illnesses and hazards cause an estimated 137,000 deaths and 91 million cases of acute illness annually across the continent, disproportionately affecting children under five. Yet despite these staggering numbers, investments in food safety systems remain inadequate, fragmented, and under-prioritised. The result is a vicious cycle: weak sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) systems raise the cost of SPS compliance, increase public health risks, and constrain participation in regional and global markets, thereby limiting the resources and incentives needed to strengthen SPS systems.
At a time when Africa is seeking to expand intra-African trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and transform its agrifood systems by implementing the Kampala CAADP Declaration, SPS systems can no longer be treated as a technical afterthought. They must be recognised as a strategic investment in public health, economic transformation, and trade competitiveness.
Why Strong SPS Systems Matter
The Kampala CAADP Declaration has renewed Africa’s commitment to agrifood systems transformation, while AfCFTA implementation is creating unprecedented opportunities for regional trade. However, these ambitions will not be met if countries cannot meet the food safety and animal and plant health standards required for products to move across borders.
Producing more food is not enough if disease outbreaks, aflatoxin contamination, weak inspection systems, or inconsistent standards prevent products from reaching consumers safely or accessing markets competitively. In an increasingly integrated African market, the ability to meet food safety and animal and plant health requirements is becoming a prerequisite for market participation rather than a technical add-on. Countries that fail to invest in SPS systems risk being left behind as regional and global standards continue to evolve.
Strong SPS systems support safer food, healthier populations, more resilient value chains, and greater confidence among traders and consumers. They also help reduce costly export rejections, facilitate market access, and strengthen Africa’s position in international trade.
The High Cost of SPS Compliance
AKADEMIYA2063 recently examined the costs of SPS compliance and the investments needed to strengthen national systems using data from Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, and Rwanda. The findings reveal that compliance remains expensive, particularly for smallholder farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises. Farmers often bear the heaviest burden because they lack economies of scale, have limited access to finance, and receive insufficient technical support. Key compliance costs include pesticide management, fertiliser management, certified seed use, and aflatoxin control. The problem is compounded by persistent gaps in SPS infrastructure, which increase compliance costs and make it harder for producers and businesses to meet standards consistently.
Perhaps most concerning is that compliance is often financed largely by private actors themselves, while public support, donor financing, and commercial credit remain limited. As a result, many businesses view SPS compliance as a barrier rather than a long-term investment.
What is Holding Africa Back
First, infrastructure gaps remain significant. Many countries continue to face inadequate laboratory capacity, weak surveillance systems, limited testing facilities, poor cold-chain infrastructure, and unreliable power supply. Second, public investment remains insufficient, with SPS systems often competing unsuccessfully against other budget priorities. Third, technical and institutional capacity constraints limit the effectiveness of inspection, certification, risk assessment, and enforcement systems. Fourth, fragmented governance arrangements create coordination challenges among ministries and agencies responsible for food safety, animal and plant health, and trade. Finally, many private sector actors lack awareness, financing, and technical support to comply effectively with SPS requirements.
These challenges underscore the need to better integrate SPS considerations into broader agrifood planning and accountability systems with more streamlined and actionable SPS indicators to strengthen reporting and accountability.
From Compliance to Competitiveness
Too often, SPS is viewed solely through the lens of regulation and compliance. Strong SPS systems support food safety, market participation, and broader development outcomes, including income generation and livelihood resilience. This is particularly important for Africa’s domestic and informal food markets, where most consumers access food and where small producers and traders require practical, affordable, and incentive-compatible pathways to safer food rather than compliance models that exclude them from markets.
AfCFTA implementation makes this especially urgent. Inconsistent standards, fragmented procedures, uneven enforcement, and weak institutional capacity continue to create barriers to regional integration. For countries to capitalise on the opportunities offered by a continent-wide market, SPS systems must become more harmonised, predictable, and effective. Countries should adopt and promote the use of digital tools to strengthen SPS systems. Additionally, priority should be given to enhancing private sector capacity to effectively engage in and benefit from the SPS ecosystem, enabling businesses to fully harness available market opportunities.
A Call to Action
The path forward is clear.
- African Union institutions and Member States should position SPS systems as a core pillar of CAADP Kampala implementation. Investments in food safety, animal health, and plant health must be systematically integrated into NASIPs, national budgets, performance monitoring frameworks, and practical SPS indicators adopted in the final CAADP Kampala Results Framework.
- Countries should prioritise enhancing or establishing foundational SPS infrastructure and certification services that reduce compliance costs and strengthen market confidence.
- Governments and development partners should invest in technical capacity, coordination mechanisms, and awareness campaigns that help producers and agribusinesses understand the benefits of compliance and access the support they need.
- The private sector must be recognised as a partner in building stronger SPS systems, including creating an enabling policy environment and expanding access to finance, technical assistance, and market incentives to accelerate compliance and innovation.
- Policymakers must improve the investment case for SPS, focusing on surveillance, risk assessment, emergency response, and regulatory oversight—and on commercially viable services such as laboratories, traceability systems, cold chains, and certification, where blended finance and private investment can be mobilised.
The Kampala Declaration and the AfCFTA have created a rare policy window to reposition SPS systems as strategic investments rather than regulatory obligations. The message from the Kampala webinar was clear: SPS is not merely about compliance. It is about public health, market access, competitiveness, livelihoods, agrifood systems, and economic transformation. As SPS has become the currency of trade, Africa must invest accordingly. Countries that embed SPS at the centre of their CAADP implementation strategies today will be best positioned to deliver safer food, stronger trade, and more resilient agrifood systems tomorrow.
