Senate committee: Canada must fully engage in Africa or risk being left behind

On December 11, 2025, the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (AEFA), chaired by Senator Peter M. Boehm, released Canada-Africa: Seizing a Strategic Opportunity. Senator Amina Gerba is among the senators who took part in the study. The report’s headline conclusion is blunt.

The numbers behind the warning

• Africa accounted for just over 1% of Canada’s total merchandise trade in 2024, worth $15.1 billion.
• South Africa and Nigeria together made up nearly 40% of that trade.
• Canadian direct investment in Africa was approximately $12 billion in 2024, heavily concentrated in mining.
• Canada has no free trade agreement with any African country, and eight foreign investment promotion and protection agreements (FIPAs) — with Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea, Mali and Senegal.
• About 1.3 million people of African origin live in Canada.

The committee also noted that Budget 2025 did not mention Africa or the Africa Strategy, and questioned whether the strategy can be delivered without new funding.

Recommendations that matter most for trade

• Recommendation 1: a detailed action plan with measurable objectives, timelines and dedicated resources, plus an annual status report.
• Recommendation 15: additional capital for FinDev Canada’s African operations.
• Recommendation 16: designate Africa a strategic priority in Canada’s trade diversification agenda and explore free trade agreement discussions.
• Recommendation 17: strengthen the Trade Commissioner Service for companies trading with or investing in Africa.
• Recommendation 18: pursue new FIPAs to encourage two-way investment.
• Recommendation 19: strengthen support for Export Development Canada and other de-risking instruments.
• Recommendation 20: make the diaspora engagement mechanism regular and meaningful, and consider a formal advisory body for the African diaspora in Canada.
• Recommendation 21: review visa processing for travellers from African countries so timelines and service standards are fair and reasonable.

Why it matters for the CACT community

This is the most detailed parliamentary roadmap yet for Canada–Africa commerce, and it speaks directly to diaspora businesses: it treats the diaspora as a comparative advantage, calls for a standing advisory channel, and names the visa bottleneck that slows down buyers, partners and delegations coming to Canada. The funding gap Senator Gerba raised in committee in October is now Recommendation 1, and she would carry several of these themes — trade missions, EDC’s risk tools, free trade groundwork — to the House of Commons trade committee in April 2026.