It’s harder for most African countries to trade with each other than with the rest of the world and that retards economic growth, says a recent World Bank report.

Regional fragmentation now threatens to become more costly because eurozone troubles and sluggish US growth stands to reduce African GDP growth by as much as 1.3 per cent this year, the report warns.

Authors of De-Fragmenting Africa: Deepening Regional Trade Integration in Goods and Services say: “Enormous opportunities for cross-border trade within Africa in food products, basic manufactures and services remain unexploited. This deprives the continent of growth, jobs and sharply falling poverty.”

The report said that in other regions of the world, cross-border production networks have spurred economic dynamism, especially in east Asia, but this has yet to happen in Africa, reported London’s Containerisation International.

“Trade creates larger markets, helps countries diversify their economies, reduces costs, improves productivity and helps reduce poverty,” said Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank’s vice president for Africa.

“Yet trade and non-trade barriers remain significant. African leaders must now back aspiration with action and work together to unblock these barriers and to create a dynamic regional market on a scale worthy of Africa’s one billion people and its roughly US$2 trillion economy,” said Ms Ezekwesili, a chartered accountant and a former Nigerian education and mines minister.

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