Kigali — The Rwandan office of the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) praised ECA's 2015 edition of its Economic Report on Africa (ERA), saying that it contains "important subjects that will help DFID to design its programmes for the next three or four years".

The report, entitled "Industrializing through Trade", was presented by Andrew Mold and Pedro Martins, ECA Economic Affairs Officers, to a group of DFID staff members at the invitation of Mr. Kato Kimbugwe, team leader of economic growth at DFID Rwanda office. The Economic Report on Africa 2015 advocates for a faster pace of structural transformation and the strategic use of trade policies, in order to stimulate intra-African trade and the emergence of regional value chains.

The discussions focused on key messages of the report, including how promoting regional integration can provide a significant boost to both trade and industrial performance. Presenting the report findings, Mold said that the intra-EAC market is dynamic and facilitates the emergence of regional value chains more than Africa's trade with the rest of the world.

As an example of the limited nature of regional value-chains at present, Mold noted that while Africa accounts for approximately 16 percent of global cotton exports, it is still importing USD4 billion of cotton fabric. A similar case is Nigeria, which despite exporting $89 billion of crude oil in 2012, at the same time was importing USD 5.5 billion of refined oil.

Discussions at DFID also revolved around current growth in the region, its prospects and challenges. "Africa economies are slowly transforming -but trade can play a greater catalystic role in their industrialization and structural transformation", said Mold.

Pedro Martins, who co-presented the report, explained that trade can be a tool to move Africa from subsistence agriculture to manufacturing and modern services - something that could significantly boost overall labour productivity and accelerate further the continent's growth.