AMAZING FACTS & FIGURES ABOUT AFRICA 2014 This is a just released document about Africa and its regional economic communities in terms of its socio-economic and political opportunities and challenges. Once again a basic argument is re-echoed that Africa gains more in unity than otherwise. These are some fast facts that stare you in the face. For example, do you know that non-African airlines control 80% of the air travel business inside Africa. Why is this the case? One will find that a lot depends on poor policy or non-implementation of the right policies, weak political leadership, poor governance and ungodly infrastructure…! Amazing! 1) Africa is 1 continental union with 8 RECs. 2) Trucks have to negotiate 47 roadblocks between Kigali & Mombasa. 3) 28 countries belong to 3 or more regional communities or groupings. 4) Only COMESA & EAC have established regional customs unions. 5) The distance between Casablanca & Johannesburg is almost 10 times the distance between Paris & Berlin. 6) The 8 RECs have GDPs ranging $98 billion–$974 billion. 7) In COMESA, the most populous country is 993 times larger than the least populous country. 8) Only 5 out of the 54 African countries offer visa-free access or visas on arrival to other African citizens. 9) Total intra-African trade amounts to only 11.3% of Africa’s total trade with the world. 10) Non-African airlines account for 80% of the intracontinental market share. 11) Informal cross-border trade is estimated at 43% of Africa’s official GDP. 12) The GDP of the richest African REC, CEN-SAD, only amounts to ½ of Russia’s GDP. 13) It took 35 years to transform the European Economic Community into the EU. 14) Informal trade between Algeria and Morocco is estimated at $2 billion. 15)The average cost of exporting a container overseas from Africa is twice as high than if exporting from Asia. 16) The population of the smallest African REC, AMU, only amounts to ½ of the population of Brazil. 17) 14 African countries have a common currency, the CFA franc. 18) The distance between Lagos & Nairobi is more than 10 times the distance between London & Brussels. 19) The EPAs exclude North African members of AMU. 20) The 2014 EU budget is around 520 times larger than the AU’s. Courtesy of Madi Jobarteh (tangogambia.org) for the summary.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 05:49:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015