Africa Should Remove Barriers to Trade to Maximise Economic Growth

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It is, as the saying goes, an interesting time to be in Africa. According to a recent report by the management consultants McKinsey and Company, the continent's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is set to grow from $1.6 trillion (R13 trillion) - roughly the same as Brazil or Russia) to $2.6 trillion (larger than the United Kingdom and slightly smaller than France).

By the end of this decade, Africa will have 128 million households with discretionary incomes to spend on consumer products. The amount they will spend on such products is estimated to grow from over $860 billion today to $1.4 trillion by 2020. The question is: how are well-positioned regional trade blocs like the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to take advantage of emerging growth patterns?

In order to lift its people out of poverty, the African continent needs sustained high levels of growth. To grow and prosper, we must increasingly trade with one …