Nigeria, Jan. 30 -- Regional organisations and integration in Africa are rooted in Pan-Africanism and the post-independence quest for unity, collective self-reliance, and development. Following the attainment of independence in the late 1950s and 1960s, African leaders recognized that political fragmentation and small national economies will clog the wheel of rapid socio-economic transformation and global influence. This led to the creation of continental and regional institutions, beginning with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union, in 1963, aimed at promoting solidarity, sovereignty, and cooperation. Complementary regional economic communities such as ECOWAS, AMU, CEN-SAD, COMESA, EAC, ECCAS, IGAD and SADC emerged ...