The ambitions are big but so are the challenges. So, the mood in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, this week, as experts met to discuss the deepening of regional integration in Southern Africa, is one of determination without over optimism.

Zimbabwe Secretary for Finance and Economic Development W.L. Manungo highlighted the need for integration but also flagged the challenges. In his opinion, there is no coherent and equitable integration in Southern Africa without “industrial development, infrastructure development and market integration”. Improving infrastructure and moving away from raw commodities “into value-added, finished products will help overcome the inherent disadvantages that some countries have,” he added.

Stressing the need for integration through the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), Prof. Said Adejumobi, Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), said that The TFTA represents one of “the most ambitious attempts at integrating African economies in creating a free trade area for 26 African countries of 632 million people, representing 51 percent of Africa's GDP.” He also insisted on opening our borders to each other. “If it is easy for non-Africans to enter our member-states whether they are business persons or not,” he said. “Then why ‘quarantine’ our own citizens in national borders? Deconstructing Africa's national borders will not only make for good economics but good social and political re-engineering of our Continent,” he added, commending countries like Mauritius which have already opened their borders to Africans.

Prof. Adejumobi also talked about the importance of integration for investment as countries are too small but bigger scale economies mean bigger investment. He also insisted on African countries tapping technology, which is “jealously guarded by some countries as a source of power”. 

About whether there is scope for a common African currency, he said that the conditions are not there yet and that we have to learn from the experience with the Euro. He favours having an African passport and free movement of people, goods and services.