Stepping stones and stumbling blocks on the path towards economic integration in Africa, 1986

This study examines and analyzes the efforts made by African nations to achieve collective, self reliant development. We are concerned with the critical examination and evaluation of the major factors behind the slow progress and sometimes failure of integrating efforts in the continent of Africa. The purpose of the study is to examine in detail the success and failure of economic integration efforts made by the integrating members in Africa to achieve economic recovery and self-reliant development. The evaluation of the eight subregional organizations in Africa will enable us to understand the slow progress in the integrating efforts of African nations, and consequently help us suggest ways to enhance the prospects of successful economic integration. As Africa gropes for appropriate developmental strategies to overcome its entrenched underdevelopment and dependency, a number of leaders in the continent and, even more notably, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) have pinned their hopes on economic integration as a crucial way of promoting development. While such a developmental strategy may seem economically logical, its success has been hindered by several factors. To this end, we hypothesize that there exist some major economic and political obstacles which have overwhelmed the economic logic of cooperation and integration. The study, using the political economy method of analysis, affirmed the hypothesis. Consequently, we recommended cooperation among member states in organization as a realistic approach. Regional cooperation seeks to lessen, through concerted actions, discrimination in certain areas of common interest