ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that poor implementation of intra-African trade and investment policies/agreements in various regional economic communities (RECs) undercut intra-/inter-trade and economic performances. Africa’s integration framework is based on grouping the continent into various regional blocks which emerged from the African Economic Community (AEC). Africa’s share in world trade is also small while its intraregional trade remains insignificant compared to other world regional trade blocks. Africa specialises in producing excess primary products which it does not have a market for and consumes only that which it imports and has no capacity to produce. Even local manufacturers and industrial sectors which need to import certain mechanical equipment and materials for production could be hindered by excessive rigidity and inflexibility of government bureaucracy and trade regulations. In fact, agriculture has been the mainstay and bedrock of most economies in Africa, with vast opportunities that are yet to be fully harnessed and exploited in intra-African trade.
