Page 20 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 15

Economy

and the moshreks’ (Nandy, 1982, Africa living on less than $1,25 a day of the trade share in global goods, it
Hoppers, 2008), Africans are waging fell by about ten percentage points accounts for only 1,8% of imports
a sophisticated revolution, and this between 2001 and 2012. This small and 3,6% of exports. The share of
conference bears the testimony to growth suggests that Africa is facing trade between African countries
that. many challenges. has declined from 22,4% in 1997 to
around 12% in 2011 (African Centre
Nkrumah (1963 : xvi) was even The extraction of minerals is not an for Economic Transformation. 2014
more emphatic when he said that end in itself, rather it is an import- African Transformation Report:
“Imperialism is still a most pow- ant means to an end. This means a Growth with Depth). Whilst this
erful force to be reckoned with in country has to be able to exploit its decline can be attributed to the rapid
Africa. It controls our economies. present comparative advantages to increase of African trade with the
It operates on a world-wide scale generate the resources to invest in rest of the world, argues Sinethem-
in combinations of many different new capabilities and skills to be able ba Zonke (2014), African countries
kinds: economic, political, cultural, to move up the value chain. Second- haven’t been able to take advantage
educational, military; and through ly, African countries must be able of high growth rates by expanding
intelligence and information ser- to attract foreign investments into with each other.
vices. It is creating client states, the natural resource sectors, but this
which it manipulates from the dis- must not translate into the exploita- The level of intra-regional trade
tance. It will distort and play upon, tion of the African people, but it in Asia has played a substantial
as it is already doing, the latent fears must improve the well-being of the role in creating sustainable eco-
of burgeoning nationalism and people. African natural resources are nomic growth. Intra-regional trade
independence. It will, as it is already not there to satisfy the needs of the has varied across Africa’s regional
doing, fan the fires of sectional foreign investors. economic communities (REC’s),
interests, of personal greed and am- The 54 African countries in our with trade blocks accounting for a
bition among leaders and contesting continent need to consider the greater percentage of continental
aspirants to power”. Since imperial- importance of integrated regional trade. This highlights the important
ism still controls our economies in economies and encourage intra-Af- role RECs have played in bringing
Africa, we are, therefore, challenged rican trade. As of today, many African markets closer together.
to confront it until it is defeated. countries in a region export similar A common critique of Africa’s re-
products and hence trade between cent growth, argues Zonke, spurt is
Economic Development Chal- countries on the continent is limited. that it has been limited to a number
lenges in Africa As countries move up the value of mineral and primary commod-
Whilst trapped within the colonial chain and diversify, there will be ities which have been exported to
economic paradigm, Africa is slowly a more organic demand for trade regions outside the continent. Even
but surely making some strides across regions. within the category of primary and
in some certain services such as mineral commodities, African coun-
extending education, health, agricul- One of the challenges that Africa tries trade little with each other. This
ture, politics, governance, democ- can and must construct is that of exposes an uncomfortable truth
racy, etc., but the level of economic its Regional Economic Communi- about Africa, in that its still stuck
growth is still very minimal. The ties. In spite of their long existence in the colonial mode, with its raw
problem is how to sustain that mini- through the Lagos Plan and the material only extracted to meet the
mal growth. There is a close rela- Abuja Treaty, with notable excep- needs of foreign markets.
tionship between policies that make tions, these have not developed as The structure of African economies,
growth more inclusive and policies was intended. The aim of all of this with their reliance on primary com-
that are likely to sustain growth. was designed to promote economic, modities exports, has left the region
Writing in The Thinker magazine, social and cultural development, as extremely vulnerable to external
Vol.60/2014 – Quarter 2, Trevor well as African economic integra- global shocks. Africa’s growth in the
Manuel (former South African Min- tion, as a means to increase self-suf- past decade has been closely linked
ister of Finance) argues that there ficiency. to China’s economic boom. With
have been steady improvements a slowdown in the Asian economy,
in the last twenty years. On the Intra-African Trade demand for Africa’s commodities
other hand the World Bank says the Africa still accounts for a very small may begin tapering.
number of people in Sub-Saharan percentage of global trade. In terms

20 | we tell the true afrikan story