ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF REGIONAL TRADE BLOCS IN AFRICA

Despite the spread of trade blocs in Africa, the volume of intra-regional trade remained low. Meanwhile, study on the uneven growth patterns of trade blocs in Africa is scarce. This study analyses the economic performance of regional trade blocs in Africa.The time series data on four trade blocs were sourced from United Nations Conference Trade and Development databases from 1995 to 2022. The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach.The result shows that while intra trade does not affect economic performance across the trade blocs, extra-trade shows a negative significant effect in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and a positive effect in Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in the short run. Although, in the long run, intra-trade does not affect on economic performance across the trade blocs, extra trade show a positive significant effect only in ECCAS. The study submitted that the economic performance of trade blocs in Africa is not uniform, while ECCAS benefited from both intra trade and extra trade, the performance of other trade blocs is not impacted by both component of trade in both the short and long run except in ECOWAS which suffers a negative short run effect of extra trade. Policymakers need to promote intra-regional trade by streamlining customs procedures and fosteringconducive business environment. Also, there is need to explore new markets and trading opportunities both with members and with other trade blocs in Africa. The study contributes to a broader understanding of the differences and similarities in trade effects across different regions.