By Mkhululi Chimoio
With the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) picking up momentum, there is a race to implement a free trade area that would drive Africa’s economic growth, connecting the continent and further accelerating integration.
Two regional blocs – the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC), have taken vastly different paths towards making this integration a reality. While the EAC is forging ahead through deliberate policy harmonisation and regional identity, SADC is grappling with political inertia, structural inefficiencies, and fragmented national interests.
This contrast can be attributed to various factors, including each bloc’s institutional arrangements, economic models, and policy choices shaping its integration trajectory – and what that means for the African Union’s aspiration of a truly integrated continental market under AfCFTA.
East Africa’s strategic acceleration
From a Customs Union in 2005 to one currency by the year 2031, the EAC has pursued a coherent and unifying policy path. Intra-regional trade among the EAC is over 25%, while SADC’s is 15% – a difference that can be attributed to better coordination and fewer bureaucratic and infrastructural barriers.
The region is the continent’s fastest-growing, with real GDP growth expected to rise from 1.5% in 2023 to 4.9% in 2024, and 5.7% in 2025, according to the African Development Bank’s East Africa Economic Outlook 2024.
Kenya is emerging as a regional export and innovation hub, while Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda are leveraging EAC frameworks to promote industrial and agricultural productivity.
Besides, a 2024 paper examining the benefits of the EAC Customs Union presents empirical findings that the Customs Union has significantly boosted Tanzanian and Burundian exports, along with stimulating imports in Uganda. Backing these findings, the 2025 International Migration Review attributes EAC’s integration success to strong regional identity and free movement support, and EAC’s prioritisation of long-term policies is a display of strategic coherence.
“By moving from a customs union to a common market and, eventually, a monetary union, they are fully in line with AfCFTA’s vision of integration,” states Wamkele Mene, the Secretary-General, of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Concrete figures also increasingly point towards the EAC’s advancement. A 2024 Kiel Institute for the World Economy report, titled “Patterns of Global and Regional Integration in the East African Community” notes significant growth in regional value chains, particularly in food processing and agriculture. Kenya is emerging as a production hub at the regional level, with production linkages forward increasingly contributing to sustainable development.
Similarly, UNCTAD reports a 34% growth in value-added trade among EAC countries from 2018 to 2023 – against below 10% in SADC.
Uganda’s view: Institutions and timelines
In the opinion of Cleopas Ndorere, Uganda Commissioner of External Trade, good institutional framework lies at the centre of the achievements of the EAC.
“We have the Summit of Heads of State, the Council of Ministers, a functioning Secretariat, and judicial organs like the East African Court of Justice,” he continues.
“The EAC Common Market Protocol allows for free movement of goods, labour, and capital. Individuals can now work and conduct business visa-free for up to six months.”
The establishment of the East African Monetary Institute and the application of IMF-compliant macroeconomic convergence criteria are setting the stage for monetary union. Investments in one-stop border posts, homogenised products, and e-customs are streamlining trade and building private sector confidence.
SADC: Fragmentation and the reform imperative
On the other hand, the SADC integration program is still plagued by non-tariff barriers (NTBs), weak institutional enforcement, and divergent national agendas.
A 2022 report by the SADC Business Council documents costly trade inefficiencies: slow customs procedures, redundant licensing regimes, and inconsistent product standards. Such frictions raise the cost of doing business and constrain regional value chain development.
Political instability in countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of Congo adds to further undermining investor confidence and weakening coordinated integration.
The SADC Annual Corporate Plan 2025/26 reflects on these concerns, citing chronic NTBs, policy fragmentation, and institutionally frail capacity as major impediments. Although regional guidelines exist, implementation is unevened due to political motives at the country level. The report calls for digital solutions in enhancing border transparency, stronger NTB monitoring systems, and infrastructure investment in cross-border linkages.
The SADC 2024/25 report notes the existence of frameworks for trade, industrialisation, and finance, but points out that the limited supranational authority of the bloc and its consensus nature dilute their effectiveness.
“SADC’s consensus model guarantees inclusivity at the cost of action,” scolds Wamkele Mene. “Without stronger institutions and a unified industrial strategy, SADC stands to lose out in the AfCFTA era.”
UNCTAD’s 2024 report also has this to say: SADC trade remains characterised by primary commodities with minimal intra-regional value addition. There is some vertical integration by South Africa, Zambia, and Mauritius, but the group at large finds it difficult to have integrated production systems.
South Africa’s strategic calculus
For its own, South Africa rejects the inertia story. It is focusing on infrastructure and sector development as opposed to symbolic integration, says Yamkela Fanisi, Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) spokesperson.
“We are developing the SADC Free Trade Area and pushing value chain development in pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, and mineral beneficiation,” Fanisi says.
He identifies that even the SADC Trade Protocol includes safeguard clauses to ensure protection for smaller economies while upholding national sovereignty – long-term unity requires it.
Structural constraints and identity gaps
Dr. Vuyo Mjimba of the Human Sciences Research Council credits ideological inconsistency as SADC’s weak point. South Africa is leaning towards liberal economics, Zimbabwe to protectionist methods, and Botswana and Namibia towards bilateral agreements rather than regional ones.
“There is minimal public involvement or identity convergence,’ explains Mjimba.
“These are some of the areas where EAC has deliberately fostered grassroots integration.”
Prof. Nicola Viegi, Chair in Monetary Policy Studies, South African Reserve Bank (SARB), also states that infrastructure from colonial times still directs trade outwards rather than towards Africa.
“SADC should harmonise financial policies and coordinate industrial policies if it is to direct trade flows inward,” he observes.
He also points to Chinese investment in EAC manufacturing and logistics that has promoted development – something SADC has yet to fully test.
Though it struggles economically, SADC is strong when it comes to humanitarian coordination. Duniya Aslam, UNHCR Southern Africa Communications Officer, sees the SADC Regional Migration Policy Framework, which facilitates asylum procedures and strengthens state capacity for managing migration.
“It’s a cornerstone that is essential to refugee protection, social cohesion, and long-term development,” she states.
Lessons from the East
Benedict Musengele, Trade and Customs Director at TradeMark Africa, attributes the EAC integration achievements to “key trade facilitation measures like the Single Customs Territory, One Stop Border Posts, and electronic systems like the Trade Logistics Information Pipeline. These measures have significantly reduced trade costs and truck turnaround times – such as shrinking the Mombasa – Kampala corridor from 18 to 4 days”.
He believes that the SADC would progress more quickly toward its own integration if it borrowed similar systems appropriate to its regional context.
“The EAC has been able to clear 92% of its reported NTBs through harmonised institutional reforms and computer-based tracking mechanisms,” said Musengele, in regards to non-tariff barriers (NTBs) urging SADC to develop legal frameworks and computer-based mechanisms that yield effective and timely NTB clearance and greater accountability.
He also stressed the requirement of modern, digitally managed trade corridors, using East Africa’s seamless connectivity as a case in point.
Musengele cautioned that SADC’s corridor advancement is constrained by fragile political will and institutional disunity. He proposed stronger corridor management, digital investment, and AfCFTA-compatible goals to empower SADC to close the gap and even lead Africa’s regional integration.
Public opinion and the divide of identity
Public opinion is also a driver in regional dynamics. In a 2023 article, Dr. Steven Gordon from the Human Sciences Research Council states that just 27% of South Africans identified solidly with other Africans. His 2024 follow-up reports continued suspicion about free movement policy, particularly in times of social unrest or economic insecurity.
“Without the people’s identity at the grassroots, regional integration is an elite-led and weak organisation,’ Gordon cautions.
Dr. Sherif Elgabaly, the Pan-African Parliament’ Committee on Cooperation, International Relations, and Conflict Resolution, Chairperson, advocates for experience-sharing across the blocs.
“The success of AfCFTA depends on converting regional aspirations into tangible outcomes,” he states.
Prof. Benon Basheka of Radix Management Consulting agrees, stating that the EAC adopted the neofunctionalist path. “Developments in technical areas such as trade and migration”, he says, “naturally led to increased cooperation.”
Private sector perspectives
Private sector players agree. Bert Bloem, Southern Africa Managing Director for Kuehne+Nagel, laments irregular customs and incompatible product standards in SADC, noting that EAC has embraced digital customs processes and joint trade corridors, which he points out has made trade more straightforward and less complicated in the region.
Tobias Alando, chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, adds that EAC manufacturing value chains – particularly food processing and pharmaceuticals – are showing actual results in job creation and foreign direct investment.
A tale of two speeds
As AfCFTA nears full implementation, Africa cannot afford to integrate piecemeal. Success in the EAC – grounded in value chain development, institutional capacity, and people’s ownership – is a compelling model. SADC, for its part, must overcome policy fragmentation, institutional opposition, and ideological disunity if it is to live up to its integration promise.
Without serious reforms, SADC risks falling behind in Africa’s integration race—not due to a lack of ambition, but because of slow and inconsistent implementation.
Meanwhile, AfCFTA’s Mene emphasises that Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are not competitors, but “the bedrock of Africa’s trade integration.”
The continental agreement builds on decades of regional progress made by blocs such as SADC and the EAC, in line with the vision of the 1991 Abuja Treaty. “Rather than replacing RECs, the AfCFTA expands and harmonises their efforts by providing common rules, unified legal frameworks, and institutional support,” he notes.
Through this layered approach, regional successes are scaled to the continental level, helping to foster a more consistent, interoperable, and seamless trade environment across Africa.
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