Economics Seminar - "Informal Cross-border Trade and Smuggling in Africa"

The low level and discrepancies of recorded intra-African trade flows have been noted for at least 30 years (Berg 1985; Yeats 1990). This situation has continued or even expanded despite structural adjustment programs involving trade liberalization and extensive integration schemes aiming to promote formal integration. There are some 30 regional blocs in Africa, and on average each of the 53 countries on the continent are members of four often overlapping groups (Yang and Gupta 2005; UNCTAD 2009). Yet official intra-African trade accounts for only about 10 percent of total African exports and imports, far below other regions of the world (Keane et al. 2010).

Refer also to http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29061377