Nearly 300 business leaders and government officials from across Africa and Europe gathered in Nairobi on September 28-29 for the 3rd EU-Africa Business Forum, themed “Africa and Europe: on the road to win-win partnerships”. Participants at the Forum pressed the issue of regional integration, which dominated the debates as a cross-cutting issue spanning the spectrum of sectoral interests.

Debates on regional integration were heated, mainly because of on-going negotiations on Economic Partnershi… Continue

Today, African integration seems to be in reach. The treaty establishing the African Economic Community sets forth a vision of a continental community, where regional integration is defined as one of the foundations of African unity. The resounding commitment of Africa’s leadership to regional integration means that Africa is poised to “fast track” efforts towards integration and that there is a fertile ground for the private sector to engage this leadership. Testimony to this is last year’s agr… Continue

On June 4-5, the ECOWAS Trade & Investment Conference took place in Brussels. It drew more than 170 people from Europe and West Africa. The conference featured more than 30 presentations and a presidential roundtable (Download summary of proceedings). It is expected that key documentation and material (e.g. summary of proceedings, video of highlights, summary of roundtable discussions and roadmap) will be availabl… Continue