WASHINGTON, DC – Despite aspirational narratives about “Africa Rising,” the continent has yet to achieve the prosperity increasingly found across large swaths of Asia and many other parts of the world. To attain genuine, inclusive prosperity (beyond aggregate GDP growth), Africa needs stronger trade performance, without which no country or continent has lifted its people out of poverty. Yet Africa’s share of world trade has long been stuck at around 3%.

Rather than continuing to depend on “global trade” with advanced industrial economies – a pattern that has kept it poor and undeveloped for the past six decades – Africa needs to build its intra-regional trade. We can think of this as Africa’s second decolonization. It is a necessary first step toward equipping the continent to engage with the world economy on its own terms. How Africa trades, and what it trades, will determine whether and how fast it can escape from poverty.

Most of what we call global trade is, in fact, regional. The continents that have prospered through trade have done so by trading with themselves. Nearly 70% of all trade by European countries stays within Europe, as does 60% of all Asian trade and 40% of North American trade. By contrast, only 13% of all of Africa’s trade is intra-African.

QOSHE - Africa Can’t Prosper Without Regional Trade - Kingsley Moghalu
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Africa Can’t Prosper Without Regional Trade

85 1
24.05.2024

WASHINGTON, DC – Despite aspirational narratives about “Africa Rising,” the continent has yet to achieve the prosperity increasingly found across large swaths of Asia and many other parts of the world. To attain genuine, inclusive prosperity (beyond aggregate GDP growth), Africa needs stronger trade performance, without........

© Project Syndicate


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