Regional integration in Africa remains low, Continental Free Trade Area needs to work for it

A new report released on March 24 claims that regional integration in Africa remains low and will be detrimental (if not addressed at the earliest) despite massive political support for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.

An index that fathoms regional integration across Africa has been released at the ongoing Conference of Ministers in Morocco. The index (known as the African Regional Integration Index) was set up to monitor and evaluate the current status of economic integration among African countries and offer a basis for member States to track their progress.

According to the report of 2019 African Regional Integration Index, there are still major challenges ahead to meet the goal of increasing intra-African trade to 25 percent by 2023 from the current 15-18 percent. It also reveals w productive capacity, high production costs, large infrastructure deficits and other challenges that affect Africa's competitiveness, which is compounded by a number of small markets and 16 landlocked countries, as reported by Xinhua.

“We cannot gloss over the challenges, but it is important to underscore the fact that we must change things if Africa is to progress,” representative in Morocco for the African Development Bank, Leila Mokadem opined.

Integration in services contributed over 53 percent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but ratification of the protocol on the free movement of people has been slow, despite the 2016 launch of the Common Electronic Biometric African Passport, and the AU Protocol on Free Movement of Persons. The continent’s large infrastructure deficit remains a major hindrance to intra-regional trade, Namibia Economist published.

On the other hand, the report reveals that the Southern African Development Community is the most integrated region on the continent in terms of trade, with South Africa the most integrated country while South Sudan the least.

Also Read: 2019 Africa CEO Forum opens in Kigali, Efforts to integrate Africa into a single market