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This paper seeks to establish the contribution of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) programmes in promoting industrialization. It further seeks to establish the link between industrialization and productivity. The paper uses a gravity model to estimate a cross‐sectional time‐series (panel) dataset for the period 2001–2015....
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... The study's results not only confirmed the theory but also underscored the significant impact on trade flows. Additionally, the theory underscores the influence of membership in Regional Economic Communities on trade [51]. Empirically, the study validated the established theory and shed light on the potential impact on Mauritania should the country choose to join ECOWAS. ...
The West African sub-region bore the brunt of the world's largest Ebola outbreak, significantly impacting the economic activities and trade shares of the affected countries. This study seeks to examine the repercussions of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) on the trade shares of affected countries and to explore the potential influence of ECOWAS membership on intra-regional trade in West Africa. Using the Poison Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation technique, an analysis of the augmented gravity model of international trade was conducted. The findings indicate a two-fold reduction in the trade shares of affected countries with their intra-regional partners due to the Ebola Virus Disease. Additionally, with Mauritania expressing its desire to join the ECOWAS sub-region, there is a need to explore the impact of the Regional Economic Community on intra-regional trade. Furthermore, the study reveals that ECOWAS membership has the potential to double trade levels in West Africa. The findings also suggest that Mauritania stands to gain significant benefits from becoming a member of the ECOWAS. In conclusion, this study highlights the necessity for ECOWAS to proactively respond to disease outbreaks and underscores the importance of increased research investment. Moreover, it emphasizes the need for the ECOWAS to further improve infrastructure to facilitate intra-regional trade, especially in transportation.
... The lackluster trade performance of COMESA has been attributed to several factors and reasons, including slow implementation of removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers (Kasekende & Abuka, 1998;Takirambudde, 1999;Carmignani, 2005;Mayda & Steinberg, 2009;Ebaidalla & Yahia, 2014;Cheluget & Wright, 2017;Ezeoha al., 2018;Shinyekwa et al., 2019). Kasekende and Abuka (1998) noted that only two countries had achieved the 80% tariff-reduction by October 1996. ...
... This, they attributed to the fact that ECOWAS was more geographically concentrated than COMESA, and also that COMESA counted more conflicts among them than ECOWAS. In another study, Shinyekwa et al. (2019) found that COMESA has created a large market and promoted industrialization among its member states. However, they also found that COMESA still trades heavily in industrial intermediates with non-members. ...
This chapter examines the performance record of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) as a regional trade agreement. The COMESA is the second largest regional trade agreement in Africa in terms of the number of member countries. It consists of 19 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, which together account for 36.8% of Africa’s total land area, and in 2019 housed 42.7% of Africa’s total population, and generated 31.8% of its total GDP. Began as a preferential trade area (PTA) in 1980, it changed its name to COMESA in 1994, became a free trade area in 2000, and a customs union in 2009. Since then, it has been seen as one of the more successful RTAs in Africa.
However, intraregional trade has not improved much since its formation. In 1995, only 7.4% of export trade was conducted within COMESA. In 2019, intraregional export trade was still under 10%. Trade with the rest of Africa shows a similar trend. However, the percentage share of trade with Africa increased slightly over the past decade, rising to 22.9% in 2015. In contrast, trade with the rest of the world over the same period accounted for more than 70% of total trade. Thus, like all its fellow RTAs, COMESA trades more with countries outside its group than those within it.
The composition of both export and import trade of COMESA is not very different from the trade of other RTAs in Africa. Thus, COMESA’s export trade tends to be dominated by primary goods while its import trade is dominated by manufactured goods. For example, in 1995 primary goods accounted for 68% of COMESA’s merchandise export. In 2019, primary goods still accounted for 69.8% of total exports. In contrast, manufactured goods constituted 70% of total import in 1995. In 2019, it was down to 62.9% but still substantial.
The lackluster trade performance of COMESA has been attributed to several factors and reasons, including the slow implementation of removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, lack of political commitment, which manifests itself in the way member states deal with action agenda items and irrelevance of economic integration, lack of necessary conditions—small market size of African countries; similar country endowments that make it difficult for collusive trade policies; lack of common interest among members due to the fact that all the countries had prior trading partners outside of the group; multiple or overlapping membership that divides loyalty, and the conflict between COMESA and SADC that made the proposed merger to be met by a cold reception. The predominance of primary products in the economies of COMESA provides less incentives for intraregional trade, and unless there is a major shift in the economies toward production of manufactured goods, it will be difficult for COMESA to improve its intraregional trade.
... Their research, which covered 29 countries from 2004-2014, showed that prioritizing ICT development significantly increases trade. Additionally, Shinyekwa et al. (2019) examined the impact of COMESA on industrialization and productivity. Their analysis of the period from 2001-2015 confirmed the group's positive impact on industrialization, but the share of TFP was lower than expected, indicating a lack of convergence with international knowledge spillovers. ...
Motives: The factors that affect technology imports from China have never been examined in the literature, and this study was undertaken to fill in this knowledge gap. The factors that drive high-tech imports from China to Africa, including those that negatively impact imports, were identified. The results can be used to implement changes in the trade strategies of African countries, including industry 4.0 strategies or trade agreements with China, and to influence the behavior of companies importing high-tech from China.Aim: The primary goal is to identify the factors that influence technology transfer, in particular the transfer of electronic and electrical technologies, in the areas of high-tech manufacturing. The second goal is to determine whether these factors have equal strength and direction of influence on different streams of technology transfer.Results: The study demonstrated that both economic and geographical factors influence technology transfer, defined as two streams of high-tech manufactures: electronic and electrical, as well as other high-tech manufactures. However, the two import streams behaved differently, and different factors affected Chinese imports into Africa.
... Evidence of complementarity between political institutions and financial sector reforms has been found, with financial reforms leading to financial deepening when institutions put constraints on political power (Tressell & Detragiache, 2008;Verdier-Chouchane and Boly (2017). Furthermore, financial development and regionalism (Shinyekwa et al., 2019) are found to be drivers of industrialization. ...
Using a panel data covering more than 100 countries worldwide, we have estimated a dynamic panel model to investigate the relationship between financial development and manufacturing industries’ growth. More specifically, we have estimated the effect that institutional quality might have in this relationship in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). The results show that lower quality institutions in SSA are a hindrance to the role financial development plays in the growth of the manufacturing industrial sector, as compared with developed countries. These findings are robust when a quantile regression model is used. Furthermore, the results confirm that the relationship between per capita GDP and industrialization is nonlinear. Finally, in SSA, the abundance of natural resources has an adverse effect on the manufacturing industrial value added, providing more evidence for the Dutch disease hypothesis.
... The second half of the 20 th century saw a rapid increase in the literature on regional integration, which was noted by Asante (1997a, p.17) and several other scholars as a critical aspect of the development strategy, especially in developing countries and regions (AfDB, 2019; Dent & Richter, 2011;Volz, 2013). This perspective is shared by both scholars and many policymakers, and can be seen in article 70 of the treaty that established the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which encourages member states to embrace initiatives and measures that seek to build the infrastructure and to design policies and strategies to drive industrialisation (COMESA, 1993;Shinyekwa et al., 2019). ...
... The continent's sub-regional groupings, known as RECs, were later understood to be vital building blocks to achieving industrialisation and development, which was not achievable through individual efforts (Shinyekwa et al., 2019). It was argued that RECs work better when they comprise a large number of member countries, because many states can jointly provide a large enough market to ensure economies of scale in production (Ricks, 2016;Yongo-Bure, 2015). ...
... It was argued that RECs work better when they comprise a large number of member countries, because many states can jointly provide a large enough market to ensure economies of scale in production (Ricks, 2016;Yongo-Bure, 2015). This further strengthens the notion of self-reliance, vouched for in both the LPA and the Abuja Treaty, to engage the strategy of collective self-reliance and sufficiency through the promotion of economic interdependence (Shinyekwa et al., 2019). ...
Since the beginning of decolonisation in Africa, regional integration has become one of the most potent defining characteristics of the continent’s quest for industrialisation and sustainable development. It was understood that the individual continental economies could not achieve the requisite level of industrial development to meet their respective development objectives due to the colonial policy of balkanisation, which divided the continent into small, economically unviable units. In 1992, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) adopted developmental integration, an approach to regional integration to engender industrialisation and address the region’s development challenges. This book offers a critical assessment and examination of this approach as to how it has influenced the industrialisation process in Southern Africa. If so, why has it failed to accelerate the region’s industrialisation and structural transformation process? It contributes significantly to cross-cutting development debates on the African continent, particularly in southern Africa. More importantly, in understanding the nexus between developmental integration and industrialisation.
... With the growing international financial markets integration, there is need, now more than ever before, for evidence-based knowledge of how markets are related and volatility shocks transmitted in the West Africa region, 3 especially in light of its importance in portfolio risk management and the growing efforts to integrate regional capital markets by the West African Capital Markets Integration Council (WACMIC). Some of the benefits associated with regional capital markets integration include development of markets and institutions, effective price discovery, enhanced liquidity and capital raising, investment growth potentials and promotion of industrialisation (Akinyemi et al., 2019;Raj & Dhal, 2008;Shinyekwa et al., 2019). Conversely, volatility shock transmission and multiple contagion of systemic risk, and the resulting market instability are among the potential challenges of markets integration. ...
Understanding the nature of interdependence between international stock markets is vital for portfolio diversification, risk management and market regulation. This paper examines the nature of interdependence among West African stock markets using correlation analysis, the Granger causality test and a multivariate BEKK‐GARCH (1,1) model. The results show evidence of a weak relationship among West African stock markets. The results also show absence of causal dependence between the Côte d'Ivoire BRVM (Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières), and the Ghana stock market, but evince feedback relationship between the Côte d'Ivoire BRVM and the Nigeria stock market as well as between the Ghana and Nigeria stock markets. The results further reveal no evidence of volatility spillover between the Côte d'Ivoire BRVM and the Ghana stock market, but show evidence of unidirectional volatility spillover from the Nigeria stock market to the Côte d'Ivoire BRVM as well as bidirectional volatility spillover between the Nigerian and Ghanaian stock markets. Overall, the findings reveal existence of weak interdependence among West African stock markets, and that West African financial markets are interdependent through the Nigerian market. These findings are relevant to stock market stabilisation and investment policy in West Africa.
Industrialisation is important for attaining economic development in an economy as well as other macroeconomic objectives, such as economic growth and low levels of unemployment. This research aimed to examine how the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa can use industrialisation for effective poverty reduction. The research adopted the panel autoregressive distributed lag model. Data were sourced from the World Bank from 1994 to 2022. The results demonstrated that social security, remittances, industrial development and development aid are crucial factors that can be leveraged to reduce poverty in the COMESA region. It was established that if industrialisation increases by 1%, poverty will decrease by 19% in the long run. It was suggested that trade barriers be removed, and modern technology be harnessed to ensure the value‐benefit of the beneficiation of raw materials for effective poverty reduction.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the link between regional trade of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and sustainability of the countries. Methodology: The study utilized a nonexperimental panel study. Panel data analysis was adopted in this study because of the sample size and the data used is cross-sectional. To test for autocorrelation, two common tests were used. That is the Baltagi and Wu’s LBI test or the Durbin Watson modified test. These tests are able to handle all sorts of panel data with minimal bias and great efficiency. Results: The region recorded an average 26.02% GDP investment rate. There was an average 41.99 percent and 2.03 percent growth in extra regional and intraregional trade respectively. This clearly showed that the EAC countries (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) have participated more in trade with other non-EAC member states than with EAC member states. Conclusion: From the empirical findings, this study concludes that sustainability and trade in the Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have a relationship that varies across countries. Kenya has a significant unidirectional relationship between intra-regional trade and the growth of GDP per capita while all the other countries reveal that such a relationship does not exist. Recommendation: Policy recommendations suggested that Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania presidents should implement strategies that enhance cooperation and integration. This is the case because empirical results indicate intra-regional trade contributes a huge chunk with respect to economic growth in the EAC countries.
