Africa and Regionalism: The Continent's Strategic Response

By Ramas Ramas -

 


Over the past 9 weeks, we have explored Africa's rich tapestry through articles examining its history, geography, culture, people, education, economy, infrastructure, and evolving business landscape. Today's discussion on Africa and regionalism brings this series to its conclusion.

Africa today stands at a pivotal moment. Regional integration has emerged as the continent's strategic response to globalization, offering a pathway to leverage collective strength while addressing shared challenges.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), effective January 2021, represents the world's largest free trade area since the WTO formation. Covering 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP exceeding $3.4 trillion, AfCFTA aims to boost intra-African trade by eliminating tariffs on 90% of goods.

Regional economic communities are demonstrating coordinated development power. The East African Community created a single customs territory where citizens travel with just national identity cards. ECOWAS pioneered integration through trade liberalization, while SADC enabled cross-border electricity trading and infrastructure development.

Transportation corridors like the Northern Corridor connecting Mombasa to Uganda and Rwanda have dramatically reduced cargo transit times. The Pan-African Payment System (PAPSS) facilitates intra-African trade in local currencies, while mobile money systems that started with Kenya's M-Pesa are spreading continent-wide.

This regional integration creates unprecedented opportunities. Companies can now think continentally rather than country-by-country, leveraging regional hubs to serve multiple markets. Just as Singapore transformed from a trading post to a regional hub, African cities like Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town are emerging as continental gateways.

Just as Europe's integration transformed a war-torn continent into an economic powerhouse, Africa's regional integration is laying the foundation for sustained prosperity. The continent is writing its own success story.

Tomorrow I'll share my personal reflections on this 10-week journey.


You can find this and my earlier pieces on Africa at http://ramas-ink-and-insight.blogspot.com,​ alongside my personal reflections on writing Black Swan, White Swan.

 #Africa #Regionalism #AfCFTA #AfricanIntegration #EconomicDevelopment #AfricanBusiness #TradeAfrica #Investment #EmergingMarkets #AfricanEconomy

 

 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Whispering World Cup Ball: A Journey Through History (1930 – 2026)

By Ramas Ramas -
Image
Uruguay vs Argentina. The 1930 World Cup final. 93,000 fans screaming. And before a single ball was kicked, there was a problem. Both teams brought their own football. Both refused to use the other's ball. The referee stood between two captains, two nations, and two footballs, with a stadium ready to explode. What would you have done? The referee made a decision that sounds almost comical today. Each team would use their own ball. Argentina's ball for the first half. Uruguay's ball for the second. Argentina led 2 - 1 at halftime with their ball. Uruguay won 4 - 2 with theirs. People still argue about whether the balls made the difference. But here's what matters more: this was the first World Cup final, and everything about it was improvised, passionate, and slightly chaotic. Just getting to that moment was a miracle. Only 13 teams had come to Uruguay. Most European countries refused to send anyone. The journey from Europe took two weeks by ship. Players train...
Read more

The Boy Who Cried After Winning

By Ramas Ramas -
Image
Stockholm, Sweden. 1958. Brazil arrived carrying a wound that had never healed. Eight years earlier, in 1950, they had lost the World Cup final at home. In front of 200,000 people at the Maracanã. The silence that followed broke a nation. Grown men wept in the streets. Some never watched football again. Now they were back. With a new manager, Vicente Feola. A new philosophy. More disciplined, but still brilliant. But something was missing. The tournament began, and Brazil played well. They won their matches. But there was no spark. No magic. Then, in their third group match against the Soviet Union, the coaches made a decision. They put a boy on the pitch. He was 17 years old. Not even fully fit. His name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento. The world would come to know him as Pelé. He didn't score in that first match. But he was a revelation. Fast. Creative. He moved like water across the field, flowing past defenders as if they weren't there. In the quarterfinal against Wales, he...
Read more

What Happened to the World Cup?

By Ramas Ramas -
Image
June 1938. Italy wins the World Cup in Paris. Three months later, Hitler invades Poland. The 1942 World Cup was supposed to be held in Germany. It never happened. The 1946 World Cup? Cancelled. By then, stadiums across Europe had been bombed. Players were dead or scattered. Football became irrelevant. But the trophy remained in Rome. Four kilograms of solid gold. And the Nazis were confiscating precious metals, melting them down for the war effort. When they occupied Rome in 1943, Ottorino Barassi knew what would happen if they found it.  Barassi was FIFA's Italian vice-president. Tall, quiet, a lawyer. Not a player. Not a coach. Just someone who loved the game. One night, he went to the federation headquarters, took the trophy, and left. He didn't hide it in a vault or bury it in a garden. He put it in a shoebox and slid it under his bed. Through air raids and street battles, the World Cup trophy sat in that shoebox. His family knew. No one else did. ...
Read more