Unearthing the challenges and prospects of regional integration in Southern Africa

Regional integration is viewed as a significant initiative with regard to stimulating economic growth amongst member states and enhancing intraregional trade, security initiatives, and bilateral and multilateral agreements. This paper examines the challenges and prospects of African regional integration with the focus on Southern Africa. The paper posits that regional integration is an imperative factor for Southern African states as it plays a pivotal role in stimulating their economic growth prospects. Nonetheless, economic growth prospects realizing the benefits of regional integration seem to be still a work in progress. The paper concludes by outlining that regional integration is a diverse component that entails the private sector and economically advanced regional states such as South Africa to be at the fore in orchestrating developmental blueprints and that there is a need for the necessary support from regional heads of states as so to realize the benefits of regional integration and the benefits it brings with it.