Domestic and intra-African trade finance

Abstract

For a long-time, economists have led the African leadership to believe domestic and intra-African trade cannot be expanded due to the narrow African market or due to the fact that Africa produced similar crops. This observation cannot be supported by any empirical evidence. If one takes any commodity say, copper, bauxite, coffee, sugar or cotton, it will be noted that at best only six or less countries are main producers. The rest of the countr.es cannot produce even enough for domestic markets. In fact, in-terms of market potentials, countries in Europe, North America and South East Asia as well as Japan continue to conduct lucrative trade with Africa. Therefore, the problem of intra-African trade is not that of the Tack, of adequate markets or lack of complimentary but a matter of negative. African-attitude, towards African produced goods.