Regional Integration

Africa’s fragmentary infrastructure networks isolate smaller countries and prevent them from harnessing efficient large-scale technologies. Regional integration is essential to reducing Africa’s high infrastructure costs.

Africa’s economic geography, with its many small isolated economies, presents its own unique challenges. The best way to overcome these challenges is through regional integration, allowing the region to participate more fully in the global economy.

For regional integration to be a success, countries must start small. This allows them to build upon their successes, which in turn will make it possible to think globally and link Africa to more external markets. One other factor that must be appreciated is that the benefits may not always be evenly distributed. To counteract this, countries must be prepared to compensate the least fortunate, allowing the region as a whole to develop.

The benefits of regional integration can be seen across all aspects of infrastructure networks. For example, in ICT and power, integrated regional infrastructures provide economies of scale, which results in substantial reductions in production costs.

• Continental fibre-optic submarine cables could reduce internet and international call charges by up to 50%;
• Regional power pools, where countries are able to share the most cost effective energy resources, would mean a potential reduction in energy costs of around US$2 billion a year.

Regional collaboration in transport and water would allow for the optimal management and development of cross-border public goods. Examples of such public goods are road and rail corridors for landlocked countries, and regional airports and seaports.

There are institutional challenges to be met in order to achieve these benefits. One of the key issues is building a political consensus. It is often the case that the political obstacles can usurp the economic benefits. This is down to the high level of trust required to achieve regional infrastructure – especially when it comes to dependence on ones neighbors for key resources.