Ensuring that Africa keeps rising: The economic integration imperative

Cyclical factors and the commodities boom have played a big part in Africa's impressive growth record since 2000. Yet the ‘Africa rising’ narrative is increasingly supported by significant macroeconomic reforms and structural changes that bode well for sustained levels of growth and development. A critical determinant of whether this positive growth trend continues will be the extent of Africa's economic integration with the rest of the world and within the continent. The TCIP framework – tracking the flow of trade, capital, information and people – developed by Pankaj Ghemawat demonstrates how economic openness and integration facilitate economic growth and socio-economic advancement. However, poor levels of integration, a lack of understanding and the data deficit that measure these flows have left Africa out of these empirical studies. In this article, data from traditional sources together with the TCIP framework provide insights into the state, nature and contribution of these flows in Africa. In addition, a look at proprietary data from Visa further elucidates the changes and opportunities presented by Africa's economic integration.