Africa targets free trade area by 2017

South Africa's Standard Bank Group is ranked the most valuable banking brand in Africa in the 2012 global Top 500 Banking Brands report - the second year in a row it has received the accolade.

A World Economic Forum panel discussion of "Africa's Role in the Global Transformation" has identified infrastructure development and the removal of trade barriers as some of the key conditions for creating more diversified economies across the continent.

The economic decline of the developed North makes it crucial for African countries to increase trade among themselves and other developing countries, South African President Jacob Zuma told a high-level Nepad meeting in Addis Ababa on Saturday.