Congo relies on imports because, after decades of war, it makes and grows little itself. More than 70% of food consumed in its south-eastern provinces crosses the Zambian border, some of it bought at Kasumbalesa’s market stalls, where French- and Swahili-speaking Congolese use sign language to bargain with sellers who speak English, Bemba or Gujarati. 

Import tariffs are the same, no matter how the goods are moved. But bicycles save money and time. Fuel is expensive and it costs $400 in vehicle taxes for a round-trip from Zambia. It is also harder to evade bribe-hungry officials when driving a lorry than when riding a bike.

“Bicycles are the only way we can do business,” says the owner of a firm that exports Namibian fish to Congo via Zambia. He once used lorries but delays meant his fish rotted. Today he uses Congolese middlemen who arrange the bicycle trade. Two-thirds of small-scale trade goes through the official border post; the other third is smuggled.

Kasumbalesa’s two-wheel exporters hint at the importance of informal and small-scale cross-border trade in Africa. Indeed, the amount of unrecorded exports means that intra-African trade may be 11-40% higher than official figures suggest, notes the Brookings Institution, an American think-tank. When barriers to official trade are so high, entrepreneurs will find alternatives. Put another way: the peddlers will keep on pedalling.