ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS ECONOMIC INTEGRATION, DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH IN AFRICA: AN OVERLAPPING REGIONAL GROUPING APPROACH by ADEJUMO EDMUND AKINTUYI, Ph.D. Dissertation Director: Professor Arthur Getis Two major problems are dealt with in the dissertation - the problem of the appropriate time to bring about economic integration of the African states and that of developing an approach that could be economically and politically more realistic than existing plans for grouping African states into rational economic regions. The countries of Africa are among the least developed of the underdeveloped areas of the world. Efforts by national government to transform the economic and social conditions of the states towards higher economic and social welfare levels have failed to achieve the desired objectives. The main reasons being that most of the states are too poor (therefore they lack investment capital), the national markets of the individual states are too small (many state markets are not larger than that of a moderate size European town), both human and natural resources of the states are too small (fifteen of the states have less than 1 million inhabitants, 30 others have 1-10 million and only 10 have more than 10 million). Economic integration is seen as the best way towards development for a majority of these states. Since most of them became independent in the 1960's, they have established over 50 multi-state institutions to provide some measure of integration. None of these institutions have accomplished economic integration. A careful analysis of the institutions reveals certain problems inherent in their approaches. In order to provide a solution to the problem of African Economic integration, the present study develops a new approach called "overlapping regional grouping." Three multi-state industries are selected for demonstration and regions created for each of them. Individual regions are economically justified for an optimum plant size for the industry, and some measure of socio-political similarity is maintained among the member states. After grouping it is necessary to ensure that the plants are located in the most efficient sites. Three types of locational techniques were employed - a cost minimization, a profit maximization and a third which only takes the qualitative aspects of the sites into consideration. Major findings of the study are: 1) That now rather than in some future time is best to bring about integration of the African states. 2) That realistic economic regions could be created for the multi-state industries on the bases of economic and socio-political considerations. 3) The overlapping characteristics suggested by the new approach could lead to greater understanding and mutual trust among the African states. 4) The two French location models are generally useful for the study of site selection. It is recommended that a supra-economic administration be established, to be responsible for all multi-state industries. It would establish measures to allay the fears of the member states regarding economic exploitation by a few privileged states. It would carefully design policies for ownership of multi-state projects, distribution of profits, employment codes, monetary and financial harmonization and the development of efficient infra-state infrastructural facilities.