Visa inaugurates African Integration Index

Visa has inaugurated the Visa Africa Integration Index that measures the degree of economic integration within key trade corridors of sub-Saharan Africa, namely West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa.

The Country Manager for Visa in West Africa, Mr. Ade Ashaya, said there was growing evidence that supported the argument that cross-border interaction, or openness drove economic growth and socio-economic advancement.

He said, “Our objective was to construct an index for a number of selected sub-Saharan African countries to measure their global and regional integration based on recent data. We want to better understand Africa to help unleash the enormous growth potential in electronic payments on the continent, now the heart of the developing world.”

Ashaye added that the Visa Africa Integration Index was particularly relevant given the release of the Africa Competitiveness Report 2013 earlier this year.

He added that the study offered a detailed analysis of key country clusters in sub-Saharan Africa, revealing strengths and areas of growth potential.

The visiting Professor of Economics at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg, Prof. Adrian Saville, said that Africa was still the least integrated region in the world, but there were signs of change.

He said, “While improving off a modest base, the countries that make up the Index have undergone positive structural transformation over the past decade. The Index offers both recent and robust evidence of this: all 11 countries show improvements in economic integration over the period measured, namely the four half-year periods that make up 2011 and 2012.”

The countries, according to Visa are- Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

The Visa Africa Integration Index said Nigeria, the second largest economy in Africa, had an integration score of 40.6 at the end of 2012, improving from 37.7 at the start of 2011.

Ashaye said the gain reflected greater regional integration; though Nigeria’s global integration had remained static over the same period.

He said, “While the country’s levels of regional and global integration still are relatively low, Nigeria is likely to be one of the key drivers of integration in Africa and one of the primary forces of African integration with the rest of the world.

“While the Nigerian economy is diversifying, aided by an increasing number of Nigerian multinationals emerging and expanding across the continent Nigerians themselves will be the true catalysts of integration, which is evident in the improving depth of the people component.”