When Africa Turns on Itself: What the AU Must Confront Before AfCFTA Can Deliver
The article argues that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) cannot succeed without addressing the lack of free movement for people across African borders. It highlights structural failures in regional integration that hinder economic growth.
Why it matters
It addresses a critical policy challenge for the African Union regarding the success of the continent's largest economic trade agreement.
A two-hour flight from Accra to Dakar costs nearly the same as flying to London. A Ghanaian trader crossing into Burkina Faso spends more time at the border than she does on the road. A Cameroonian shop owner who has built his business in Durban for twenty years can have it dismantled in an afternoon by a mob, while the state watches.
The article presents an analytical argument regarding economic policy and regional integration.
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