Do trade openness and governance matter for economic growth in Africa? A case of EAC and WAEMU countries

The relationship between trade and growth as well as governance and growth especially in developing countries has been well researched but is yet concluded. In this light, this study examined the roles of trade openness and governance on economic growth in the East African Community (EAC) and West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) member countries. Using the fixed effect panel estimation approach, data covering the period between 2002 and 2020 were analysed for 14 countries, including a disaggregation by bloc. The results suggested that trade openness encourages economic growth in the full sample in the countries. Meanwhile, governance supports economic growth in the full sample and WAEMU sub-sample with an insignificant impact on EAC sub-sample. The results affirm the importance of multilevel integration among the EAC as compared to the WAEMU bloc. The study concludes that growth is achievable through openness of trade and the extent to which governance supports growth depends on the level of integration among regional blocs since due to integration, benefits of good governance or negative consequences of bad governance can spread across countries.