The implications of the African continental free trade area on existing regional economic communities in Africa

Abstract

Countries world over are employing different strategies to grow their economies and improve the living standards of their people. Among the initiatives being employed is regional economic integration. Regional economic integration is seen as a pathway to ensure easier access to bigger markets and increased levels of trade resulting in higher economic growth.1 Africa is not an exception to the foregoing. Indeed, Africa has since the early years of independence in the 1960s been pursuing the regional integration agenda. Independent Africa perceived increased trade through regionalism as the universal remedy for the twin problems of slow rates of economic growth and alleviation of poverty on the continent.