Two US metro areas generate as much economic output as an entire continent.
New York and Los Angeles have a combined GDP of $3.8 trillion.
Africa — 54 countries, 1.6 billion people, and a land area more than three times the size of the United States — has a GDP of $3.6 trillion.
This isn’t due to a lack of talent, ambition, or resources.
Much of it is due to fragmentation.
New York and LA operate inside one currency, one regulatory system, one open domestic market of nearly 350 million consumers.
Africa contends with 40+ currencies, 50+ regulatory regimes, and countless cross-border frictions.
In many cases, it’s still cheaper to trade with Europe than with the country next door.
The result is one of the world’s least integrated regional economies, where intra-African trade still accounts for less than 15% of total trade, compared with roughly 60% in Europe and Asia.
That’s why the notion of one interconnected, low-friction, global Africa is so compelling.
Integrate the market, and prosperity compounds.
Despite slow implementation, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a good top-down mechanism designed to reduce these frictions.
But integration can’t be legislated from the top down alone.
It has to be built from the bottom up, too, with grassroots stakeholders — entrepreneurs, investors, institutions — applying fresh thinking and proving out new models at scale.
GAIA — Global Africa Investment Alliance
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