Easing border bottlenecks will boost intra-African trade, says new AfDB report

29 March 2012

African Development Bank - March 28, 2012

Africa’s numerous border and customs posts, with the associated bureaucracy and long delays, continues to hold back trade and economic growth on the continent, reports a new study from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The high number of checkpoints results from the fact that Africa has 54 countries, but even so the process could be simplified, leading to big cuts in wasted time and transport costs, according to the report.

The study, from the AfDB’s Chief Economist’s department, is entitled ‘Border Posts, Checkpoints, and Intra-African Trade: Challenges and Solutions’.

Boosting trade within Africa is one of the benefits of furthering the process of regional integration on the continent.  The authors of the report acknowledge that the border issue is only one of a number of challenges faced by the regional integration agenda.

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Category: Transport

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