Integration bottlenecks hinder Africa's potential

SWIFT, a global cooperative providing a platform for financial institutions to send and receive information on financial transactions, is holding its 20th African Regional Conference in Gaborone until Thursday.

This year, the organisation, which has more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 212 countries, is focusing on how to maintain Africa's momentum as one of the world's fast growing regions.Yesterday, experts pointed out that while African states had made great strides for connectedness across borders and greater financial inclusion among their individual populations, these efforts still lagged behind other competing continents.