guest column:Admire M Dube IN LIGHT of the economic weakness Africa exhibits on the global arena, and with all the mediocre economic numbers individual African countries produce annually, it bodes well for the continent to increase its negotiations and its trade with the world if it does so as a bloc than continue trading as individual countries. Indeed, consensus among policymakers and political leaders is that it will not harm African countries to develop through regional integration and trading blocs to achieve sustained development and increase their negotiation clout, and, therefore, participation in the global economy. The 2019 statistics show that Africa’s population stood at 1,3 billion with a combined nominal GDP of US$2,58 trillion and a healthy 3,7% growth rate. This stands it firmly abreast with fellow rising economies like India with the exact same population count and a GDP of US$3,2 trillion and Brazil with a nominal GDP of US$2 trillion. However, Africa’s poverty rates for its individual countries are steep and the combined GDP does not seem to positively influence constituent country performance. All the world’s 10 poorest nations are domiciled on the continent. For instance, Niger has a national GDP of a measly US$9 billion, and a meagre per capita GDP of US$414 while India, which has a similar population to Africa as a whole and with a comparable GDP as well, sees its people five times better off as they have a per capita GDP above US$2 000! This African population poverty is despite its total merchandise trade with the world of almost a trillion US$, according to the Africa Import-Export Bank. It goes without saying that development flows to Niger would be significantly greater if the nation’s trades were under the auspices of a trading bloc than is currently obtaining where each country goes alone in the dog-eat-dog global arena. The same averment does apply to varying extents even to the so-called continental giants — Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. Size does matter in economics This is not to say there are no currently existing trading blocs in Africa. The main blocs are the Economic Organisation of West African States (Ecowas), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Southern African Development Community (Sadc), and Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD). Ecowas is composed of western African nations while Comesa encompasses central and eastern African nations. Sadc brings together southern African countries while CEN-SAD is composed of northern, central, and western African countries. Their main thrust though is to realise increased regional integration through customs and monetary unions, free trade areas, and common regulatory and legal frameworks. It’s noteworthy to highlight that their focus is thus on internal intra-trade enhancement through removal of obstacles more than it is about improving Africa’s trade with the world. This, though noble and quite helpful, is not exactly what Africa may necessarily need at present. We may harp on the need to migrate from prima