ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the COMESA and SADC regional integration schemes, with limited reference to the SACU scheme. Costs of entering foreign markets include transaction costs, taxation costs, listing costs, costs of information disclosure, and costs of various national regulatory bodies to monitor information disclosure. The other regional integration scheme in Southern Africa, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), has been hailed by some as not only having the longest unbroken period of customs union integration in Africa, but also as being the most effectively functioning regional arrangement in Africa. Socio-cultural factors include problems over the choice and use of language differences in national culture, differences in the literacy levels and differences in the social stratification of various member states. The COMESA integration scheme is not free from this problem. However, the authors have spelt out above some important proposals to redress this problem in as far as securities trading on the regional stock exchange are concerned.
