Regional Integration and Industrial Development: The African Experience

Abstract

This study examined the role of Africa’s regional integration in promoting industrialization in the continent. We traced the effort of various Regional Governments, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Union (AU) in promoting industrialization in Africa. Industrial development in Africa is still at the primordial level, making Africa depend mainly on primary commodities for export and leading to the reduction in the continent’s share of the global export of manufactured goods, increase in unemployment, and poverty. The study, proffers the argument that regional integration is a veritable instrument for achieving structural transformation and industrial development in Africa. We therefore recommended that the Regional Economic Communities should be reorganized in order to facilitate the ratification and implementation of the regional integration agenda which has direct consequence on sustainable industrialization in Africa.