# African cross-border trade integration efforts > Live situation record from CLSTR: https://clstr.news/situations/african-cross-border-trade-integration-efforts > Updated: 2026-09-07T06:48:41.000Z. Sources: 5. Developments: 2. Efforts to improve African cross-border trade are addressing both physical infrastructure and financial systems. In East and Southern Africa, regional integration initiatives are focusing on One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) to streamline customs and immigration. While these efforts aim to reduce transit delays and transport costs through digital coordination, officials report challenges such as technological gaps, smuggling, and limited parking space at key points like Busia and Malaba. Simultaneously, businesses face significant financial hurdles due to inefficient payment systems. Current transaction processes often require routing funds through foreign banks in Europe or North America, incurring friction fees of 2% to 5% and draining foreign exchange reserves. These issues, alongside linguistic barriers and foreign exchange volatility, contribute to low intra-African trade volumes. In response, some payment platforms are expanding operations to help mitigate these regional payment frictions. ## Timeline ### 2026-09-07: African cross-border trade faces high costs and payment friction African businesses face high costs and delays in cross-border trade due to inefficient payment systems, currency volatility, and linguistic barriers between English and Francophone regions. 3 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/african-cross-border-trade-faces-high-costs-and-payment-friction ### 2026-08-22: African border operations face challenges amid push for one-stop posts African nations are working to improve regional trade via One-Stop Border Posts, though East African borders face smuggling and tech gaps while SADC pushes for faster transit in the south. 2 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/african-border-operations-face-challenges-amid-push-for-one-stop-posts --- Cite as: African cross-border trade integration efforts. CLSTR, https://clstr.news/situations/african-cross-border-trade-integration-efforts