African Continental Free Trade Area as Economic Platform to Promote Intra-Regional Trade in Africa: An Afrocentric Survey

This article discussed intra-regional trade opportunities to be harnessed by Africa through African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to boost trade and development. The researcher observed that Africa consists of regional economic communities (RECs) that do not serve a common objective for African regional integration. The findings emanating from existing literature review indicated that African economies are still tied to traditional colonial economic frameworks that are based on narrow interests. This article used the tenets of contextual lens from Afrocentricity choice to identify and fill the gap of existing body knowledge of new phenomenon that could boost intra-regional trade in Africa. Methodologically, a qualitative research approach was used to analyse data. The Eurocentric studies on African regional integration focused on political discourse and abandoned economic sustainable programmes. The aim was to determine the economic opportunities Africa could harness through the AfCFTA. The study emphasised that the future of Africa's economic development depends on the Unity of African economies.