Advantages of Regional co-operation
Provision of Loans: Internal lending becomes easy because of trustworthiness. It is also easy to get foreign loans, financing bodies and it is easy to lend organised bodies than a single country.
Wider market: African countries are very small in terms of population thus regional cooperation helps in creating large markets for African states.
Joint development: Regional cooperation helps in bringing all resources together for joint development purposes. Therefore, the small African states with a small resource base stand to benefit greatly with such integration.
Raising capital: African countries have got very small capital. It is only through regional cooperation or integration that they even mobilize the scarce capital resources for joint economic projects which would be very expensive if one single county tried.
Attraction of investors: Large markets created by regional economic grouping attract foreign investment. Foreign capital investments are also of the major prerequisites for industrial development in Africa.
Specialization: Regional economic cooperation fosters specialization and avoids wastage of resources especially in industry.
Access to sea ports: Regional economic cooperation among states can help landlocked countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, etc to get free access to the sea.
Reduces dependence: Economic cooperation in Africa can assist in reducing dependence on developed countries for the manufactured goods for example with PTA, Uganda can purchase tractors easily from Zimbabwe than from Europe. It can also purchase transformers at cheaper costs from Tanzania than from Europe.
Fighting natural hazards: With economic cooperation, it becomes easy to fight natural hazards such as water hyacinth.
Impetus to agriculture: A wider market for agricultural projects may improve on agricultural production efficiency and promotes agricultural development. Countries with different climatic conditions can consume goods from other areas.
Common currency: Countries adopt a common currency, which enables the smooth running of trade.
Removal of Trade barriers: Economic cooperation helps in increasing the volume of trade among member nations. Commodities are free to move from one country to another without any barrier.
Reduces economic imbalance: Economic cooperation can assist in removing economic imbalance between member nations. Poor nations within the group are in a position of benefiting from the resources of richer member nations.
Political relationship: Regional economic cooperation can help in promoting good political relationships between member states.
Joint research: Allows member countries to conduct joint research so as to discover more at a low cost.
Wider market: African countries are very small in terms of population thus regional cooperation helps in creating large markets for African states.
Joint development: Regional cooperation helps in bringing all resources together for joint development purposes. Therefore, the small African states with a small resource base stand to benefit greatly with such integration.
Raising capital: African countries have got very small capital. It is only through regional cooperation or integration that they even mobilize the scarce capital resources for joint economic projects which would be very expensive if one single county tried.
Attraction of investors: Large markets created by regional economic grouping attract foreign investment. Foreign capital investments are also of the major prerequisites for industrial development in Africa.
Specialization: Regional economic cooperation fosters specialization and avoids wastage of resources especially in industry.
Access to sea ports: Regional economic cooperation among states can help landlocked countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, etc to get free access to the sea.
Reduces dependence: Economic cooperation in Africa can assist in reducing dependence on developed countries for the manufactured goods for example with PTA, Uganda can purchase tractors easily from Zimbabwe than from Europe. It can also purchase transformers at cheaper costs from Tanzania than from Europe.
Fighting natural hazards: With economic cooperation, it becomes easy to fight natural hazards such as water hyacinth.
Impetus to agriculture: A wider market for agricultural projects may improve on agricultural production efficiency and promotes agricultural development. Countries with different climatic conditions can consume goods from other areas.
Common currency: Countries adopt a common currency, which enables the smooth running of trade.
Removal of Trade barriers: Economic cooperation helps in increasing the volume of trade among member nations. Commodities are free to move from one country to another without any barrier.
Reduces economic imbalance: Economic cooperation can assist in removing economic imbalance between member nations. Poor nations within the group are in a position of benefiting from the resources of richer member nations.
Political relationship: Regional economic cooperation can help in promoting good political relationships between member states.
Joint research: Allows member countries to conduct joint research so as to discover more at a low cost.
National Movements and New States in Africa