The outcome document (Accra Compact) of the 2025 edition of the annual Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) held in Accra, Ghana, from Thursday, 30 January to Saturday, 1 February 2025, has been presented to heads of state and their delegations who attended the 38th African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from Saturday, 15 to Sunday, 16 February 2025.
The 40-page compact, which essentially captured the transformative agenda aimed at accelerating economic integration, driving strategic infrastructure development, and unlocking Africa’s full economic potential, was received with enthusiasm and a renewed commitment to ensure that its content is fully implemented to achieve Africa’s quest for a single market through the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA).
Addressing the media after the distribution of over 300 copies of the Accra Compact at the AU summit, the former African Union (AU) chairperson and currently the chairperson of the Advisory Council of the Africa Prosperity Network (APN), organisers of the APD, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD), a flagship initiative of the APN, is designed to bring together African political leaders, influential businessmen and women on the continent and global citizens to discuss and agree on practical steps to achieve Africa’s prosperity.
“The APD is a call to action aimed at mobilizing leaders from both the private and public sectors to work together to drive economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve the lives of African citizens. The APD 2025, which concluded recently, was a resounding success.
“The dialogues brought together over 2000 leaders from 47 countries across Africa and the global African diaspora, resulting in the APD 2025 “Accra Compact,” which has been given to heads of state and their delegations.
“This landmark document outlines a collective vision for Africa’s economic growth and prosperity, built around five transformative pillars: funding necessary for Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics Integration, Energy Security and Power Integration, Digital Transformation, and Social Infrastructure,” Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma remarked.
“The overall outcome of APD 2025 is a renewed sense of commitment and cooperation among African leaders and global citizens. The distribution of the APD 2025 “Accra Compact” at the 38th AU summit demonstrates our collective vision to drive economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve the lives of African citizens. We are confident that the implementation of the compact will have a transformative impact on Africa,” Dr Dlamini-Zuma further remarked.
The Accra Compact
The Accra Compact, the outcome of APD 2025 held under the theme “Delivering Africa’s Single Market through Infrastructure: Invest, Connect, Integrate,” identifies infrastructure development, digital transformation, energy security, transport and logistics integration, and social infrastructure as essential areas that require immediate attention if the continent is to achieve its intra-African trade and economic self-sufficiency targets. Thus, the Compact is structured around five key pillars, and they are;
- Transport and Logistics Integration
This pillar emphasizes implementing the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) and addresses the 30-40% cost premium currently impacting intra-African trade. It advocates for comprehensive air service liberalization and the execution of Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy 2050.
- Energy Security and Power Integration
This pillar responds to widespread power reliability challenges affecting over 30 African nations by developing interconnected power grids and harmonizing regional energy policies. It places special emphasis on multibillion-dollar strategic projects, such as the Grand Inga Dam for hydropower and the exploration of solar energy potential in the Sahara and Kalahari Deserts.
- Digital Transformation
Building on the AU Protocol on Digital Trade and the report “Scaling Up Interoperability for Economic Integration: Using Mobile Money to Buy and Sell Across Africa,” the APD2025 Compact establishes a five-year roadmap for achieving Pan-African mobile system interoperability.
It prioritizes investments in broadband infrastructure, e-commerce platforms, and unified regulatory frameworks to accelerate digital trade. The Compact calls on heads of state, policymakers, regulators, and stakeholders to commit to:
a. Ensuring all member states join the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) by 2027.
b. Enhancing cross-platform integration using the Ghana interoperability model to ensure seamless transactions between mobile money accounts, banks, and other payment channels by 2027.
c. Allowing cross-border mobile money interoperability across all AU regional blocs and within every member state by 2030.
- Health Care and Social Infrastructure
This pillar focuses on strengthening healthcare systems through increased domestic pharmaceutical production capacity and digital health solutions, including integrated mobile payment and insurance platforms. It also urges all governments to prioritize STEAM education to equip young Africans with entrepreneurial and employable skills to leverage the AfCFTA.
- Strategic Infrastructure Financing
The Compact introduces an innovative Integrated Africa Infrastructure Growth Fund with a target of mobilizing over $2 trillion in its first decade. This will utilize various strategies, including a retail drive seeking contributions of a dollar a day.
Targeted investors will include Africa’s growing middle class (including global Africans), domestic capital markets, multilateral financial institutions, pension funds, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds, supported by streamlined regulations and risk mitigation mechanisms.
“If 100 million Pan-Africanists, including people of African descent and friends of Africa, commit to investing as little as $30 a month into a well-structured fund, under the auspices of the AfDB and others, that could generate an additional $36.5 billion annually to finance the railways and roads that will comprehensively connect our continent from north to south and east to west,” Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the Executive Chairman of APN stated.
APD 2025
APD brought the continent’s critical challenges and industrialisation priorities into practical focus and aggressively advanced the commercial and infrastructural interventions to achieve the vision of an Africa Beyond Aid.
Day One (30 January) commenced with the opening of the Projet Afrique Exhibition, Breakfast Meetings, and the opening ceremony of APD 2025, which featured international dignitaries, the Vice President of Ghana, Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, delivered the main keynote address.
Key discussions by renowned experts were on infrastructure funding, transport, and logistics for free movement across Africa. The day concluded with a Welcome Reception at the prestigious Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City, Accra.
Day two (31 January) focused on crucial topics, including sustainable energy solutions, digital infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, STEM education, healthcare systems, and sustainable urban development. Day two also had an open forum with contributions from all participants on the theme. These sessions formed the foundation for the summit’s outcome document with recommendations.
The final day (1 February) marked the High-Level Heads of State and Business Leaders’ Dialogue, culminating in a Presidential Roundtable discussion on policy frameworks for private sector participation in building Africa’s single market.
Three heads of state participated. The day also featured a significant signing ceremony to mark a strong collaboration between the AfCFTA Secretariat and BADEA. The summit concluded on the night of the third day with the prestigious Africa Prosperity Champions Awards (APCA) and the Presidential Gala Dinner.
APN
The Africa Prosperity Network (APN) is a private non-profit organisation founded to advance the vision of “Africa We Want,” as outlined in the African Union’s Agenda 2063. It strives to promote Africa’s progress, independent of external aid.
The Africa Prosperity Dialogues series offers a strategic platform where movers and shakers across Africa elevate the continent’s economic integration objectives from ambition to real action.
The APD is a one-of-a-kind event where African leaders from diverse areas of national endeavor gather each year to expedite, among other things, the implementation of the agreed initiatives within the AfCFTA trade bloc and shape the Africa Agenda for Action.
