What are the Real Chances for Africa to Develop its Trade?

Abstract

Despite the importance to researchers, managers, and policy makers of how African trade contributes to regional development, there is uncertainty about the strategy and its implementation for sustainable trade in the continent. Through an integrative review of the literature summarizes past empirical or theoretical literature to provide a more comprehensive understanding about African trade. We develop a model for African trade development that integrate the various inputs (capacity building; financial and capital; policy and market environment) that are necessary for African trade improvement and others socio-economic outcomes. We apply the framework to synthesize what is known about African trade and provide a blueprint to guide future research by developing propositions and suggestions for a research agenda. It is known that inter-African trade is valuable for the regional’s economic development, but the impediments are all interconnected and need complementary actions as well as a competitive macro environment.

Keywords: Africa, Trade, development