Africa: COVID 19 and the Future of Economic Integration

Abstract

As part of the Global agenda 2030 for sustainable development and agenda 2063 as Africa aspires to fulfill a major development objective, the current breed of African leaders after (re)democratization in the 1990s, have shown greater commitment to adopting and implementing decisions for regional/economic integration as a common strategy for the development of the continent. Thus, in 2018, 44 countries signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) in Kigali.Nevertheless, the novel COVID19, since it revealed its ugly head has had disruptive impacts on world economy. Sub Saharan Africa also suffers from these global economic effects and thus, amidst COVID19, the region will see economic growth reverse and plunge to between -2.1% to as low as -5.1%.The economic shrinkage will cost Sub-Saharan Africa between $37 billion to $79 billion in lost output in 2020 due to a sharp decline in output growth. Therefore, can African countries achieve this development path of integrating their economies amidst the COVID19? What remain the prospects for Africa’s current commitment towards economic integration? Within this paper, I argue that, although and somewhat the future prospects for Africa’s economic integration remain uncertain and blur due to the destabilizing effects of the COVID19 on individual African economies; Yet, the sense of urgency of the current global crisis would translate into adding impetus to accelerate growth: first, an opportunity to re-think macro-economic policies; second, the COVID19 has further revealed the vulnerability of African economies and thus, will provide a strong signal to African leaders and significantly adding an incentive to initiating full and concrete measures to ensure economic integration.