China's engagement in Africa: What are the potential impacts on Africa's regional integration?

There are huge opportunities for African countries to trade among themselves and invest in each other's economies, but the African market remains fragmented, hampering cross border trade and investments. Even though African governments are pushing for regional trade integration, challenges and difficulties exist. Limited financial resources, tariff and non-tariff barriers, the slow implementation of a protocol on the mobility of goods and services across countries, and political and economic instability and conflict in some countries have been barriers to regional integration in Africa. Regional integration has been high on African policymakers' agendas and African governments have embraced regional integration as an important component of their development strategies; including in their engagement with their foreign partners, not least so China, the focus of this particular study.