Boosting intra-African trade performance: the role of maritime transport logistics

Maritime transport significantly affects all aspects of international trade globally. Following this, it is vital to empirically understand the influence of maritime transport logistics on intra-African trade performance. This paper investigates the impact of maritime transport logistics on intra-African trade performance within the framework of the gravity model. Data on 32 African countries for the period 2010–2018 is used while the Poison Pseudo Maximum Likelihood estimation technique is employed for the analysis. The results reveal that maritime transports enhance intra-African trade performance; greater access to maritime transports is associated with an increase in intra-African trade performance. Based on this result, it is recommended that policies that increase maritime transport logistics are what policymakers should prioritize and pursue in the quest to increase the performance of trade in African countries. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.