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African Solutions for African Problems

Their country. Their people. Their culture.

development strategy was largely prompted by the slow pace of economic progress on the
continent, the increasing marginalization of Africa in the global economy, and the need to

create regional resources and standards that would benefit the continent in all spheres of social
life. A painful realization became obvious that small micro-states in Africa sticking to their
political independence and sovereignty would hardly make much progress in an increasingly

globalised world.

A macro-states' approach of regional integration has assumed Africa's new strategy to
intervene in and integrate with a globalizing world.”

"The African Union and New Strategies for Development in Africa" 435
Said Adejumobi and Adebayo Olukoshi."

*****

It's Africa's Turn to Leave the European Union

“ The EU doesn't treat the African Union as an equal partner. Unless the AU resets relations, it's
in for decades more of the same.
***
African visions of an integrated continent with political solidarity and interlinked prosperity are
as old as decolonization, but until recently there were few indicators that it was heading in the

right direction. The Organization of African Unity, founded in 1963, was widely regarded a mere
dictators' club and was succeeded in 2002 by the African Union, whose reputation fares

marginally better. Modeled to a fault on European Union institutions, the AU remains both overly
centralized and lacking in capacity and accountability. But in the last three years, the AU has

begun to emerge as a globally relevant actor because it overcame a major hurdle to pan-African
progress.

***
In 2018, the African Union adopted the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the

largest trade agreement concluded since the World Trade Organization in 1995. At more than
$2.5 trillion, the economy of the African Union is nearly the size of the British and French
economies, which rank sixth and seventh in the world. Trading under the single continental

market for goods and services begins on July 1, when most of the 30 ratifying countries will
drop tariffs on at least 90 percent of their products and progressively reduce tariffs to a

maximum of 3 percent by 2035.
***
While the AfCFTA will not transform Africa overnight, and its long-term prospects are
contingent on successful implementation, it heralds a new era in which the AU can finally

leverage its collective economic clout in its political relationships with the rest of the world.