African countries have experienced disparities in the growth of their economies. The literature provides different propositions on the causality of economic growth which has given rise to debates on the alternative course that countries need to pursue to enhance their respective growths economically. The paper has therefore examined the effects of trade openness on economic growth for the African countries. In order to analyse the link between trade openness and economic growth by using the growth model, the instrumental variables and two stage least squares (2SLS) for panel data models approach is employed. Later an examination of the direction and strength of causality is conducted by using such techniques as Johansen cointergration test and short run granger causality test. The paper uses data from the World Bank database. A sample size consists of 49 African countries with a sample period of 20 years. Empirical results reveal that of all the variables that were included in the growth model, gross capital formation revealed a great impact on economic growth for African economies, followed by openness and then FDI flows. A test of granger causality for individual countries so as to explain the economic disparities, reveals that majority of the African countries (in the sample) supports the export led growth hypothesis. Implications are that the export led hypothesis would be much more advantageous for the African countries if it would not only result into increased real incomes but also economic structural transformations.

This paper uses gravity models to take advantage of the possibility to explicitly test the changes in trade patterns over time and examine how these changes differ across different regions in question. Using gravity models, the paper examines the determinants of trade flows of African countries with the emerging trading partners to Africa, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC). These countries are part of the five largest emerging economies that accounts for about 20 per cent of the world output and 27 per cent of the global trade flows. The study models some new variables in gravity models such as credit to private sectors, arable land as well as mobile cellular subscriptions. The paper highlights some important truths, African countries where most of this bilateral trade with BRIC is concentrated includes those countries which are rich in natural resources, and in most cases they are the same with higher GDP per capita among the African countries. The coefficients variable arable land takes a positive sign with high statistical significance for the BRIC-Africa trade flow; and it indicate that the size arable land tend to statistically explain 65 per cent of the variations on exports for the bilateral trade flows. The coefficients for the mobile cellular variable indicate a positive effect on the trade from BRIC to Africa. Mobile phones usage has a great potential to enhance the bilateral trade volumes of the African countries as well considering the limited infrastructural setup in the continent.