Opinions

Industrial policy is the most important of all economic policies because it is the only one that can bring coherence across the many disparate sets of economic policies that governments have.     Earlier this month, the Secretary General of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, His Excellency…

Will the single market be realized fast enough to withstand the global storms where powerful societies are devising ways, covert and overt, to devour others?     Imagine a big plane with hundreds of passengers racing on the tarmac readying to take off. But towards the end of the runway,…

On September 9, President Hage Geingob of the Republic of Namibia announced the abolition of passport use for travel between Namibia and Botswana, a move that is considered bold in Africa’s over half-a-century quest for regional integration.     Whilst the African Union is pushing for a ‘visa free Africa’,…

The African Union has endeared itself as an efficient mechanism to facilitate and advance the continent’s integration and development.     The transition from the Organization of African Unity (OAU), to the African Union (AU), in 2002, was a historic moment for the continent. The OAU was the crystallization of…

Dr Omar Alieu Touray, a Gambian diplomat and economic development expert should normally be excited as he gets set to assume the Presidency of the Commission of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the first week of July 2022. But that excitement will be diluted by…

This year’s celebration of Africa Day provides another opportunity to assess how far continental integration has progressed.     Integration would mean a truly united Africa – either a federalist “United States of Africa” or the African Union (AU) exercising binding powers over member states. At present the AU merely serves as a…

The Africa Governance Report (AGR) is a flagship publication of the African Union (AU) on the state of governance in Africa produced biennially by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), in collaboration with other members of the African Governance Platform (AGP).      The AGR is one of the outcomes…

March 9, 2022 marks 19 years of the existence of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), mandated by the African Union to enhance the state of governance on the continent. Yet, for the Mechanism’s reviews to have the desired impact, APRM must closely engage with African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).…

In February,  EU and AU leaders met in Brussels to analyse the future of relations between the two continents and revisit the terms of the historical “‘partnership”.     As somehow expected, the summit failed to make concrete commitments to address the fundamental issues underlying the unequal and inequitable relationships…

The AfCFTA has the power to economically transform Africa, but to succeed it needs to go beyond mere trade liberalisation, says the chief economist at Afreximbank.     Although Africa was far from the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic and has recorded some of the lowest casualty rates, the region…