Vice Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has charged summit attendees of the maiden edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD), to develop signature solutions with fearless determination that will help deepen intra-African trade.
Dubbed the Kwahu Summit, the first of what is going to be annual dialogues, is taking place from Thursday 26 to Saturday 28 January, 2023. Focusing on intra-Africa trade, the Africa Prosperity Dialogues brought together Africa’s political and business leaders to plan and work together on the all-important single market, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) project for the continent.
In his address to formally open the APD at Safari Valley resort at Adukrom, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, today 26 January 2023, under the theme, “AfCFTA: From Ambition to Action – Delivering Prosperity through Continental Trade”, Dr Bawumia, noted that “the time has come for Africa and Africans to define our own narrative”.
Africa, the Vice President said can no longer “allow poverty and underdevelopment to be the destiny of her peoples, being “a continent so blessed with every natural resource imaginable – oil, gas, minerals, and sunshine”.
“As key stakeholders, we must consolidate the successes so far and, with a sense of urgency, develop the signature solutions needed to deepen intra-African trade and spur impactful investments needed to bring prosperity to the continent and its people. And we must do this with fearless determination” Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia said.
Three priority areas
To bring about the transformation Africa needs, Vice President Bawumia proposed three (3) broad areas that attendees of the APD should focus on and prioritise as they go about the dialogues.
“First is the need for smart investments in critical infrastructure. As a continent, we need to produce and trade our way out of poverty and underdevelopment, and we cannot do that without investing in smart infrastructure across the continent”.
“While the last decades have seen some positive investments, there is the need for additional resources to finance the ‘arteries for trade’, which include the physical infrastructure such as roads, rail, and energy; digital infrastructure such as data centres to facilitate the digital transformation and financial infrastructure to allow for integration financial markets. These investments will be critical to delivering the success of the AfCFTA” Dr Bawumia said.
“Second is to unleash the productive capacities across the continent. We must create platforms for knowledge brokerage and access to information on critical products and services on the continent to allow 445 million small businesses across the continent to plug into the value chains of these mega industries”.
“We need to develop Africa into a manufacturing zone that will facilitate the trade of value-added products. These, in my view, will be critical to leapfrog Africa’s industrialisation and the enormous socio-economic benefits” he said.
“Finally, is mobilising finance and investments. Africa needs between US$ 130 billion and US$ 170 billion annually to bridge its infrastructure gap and generate sustainable growth at 5% per annum or more.
“This presents immense opportunities for the private sector investment. Attracting private sector participation through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) is therefore, essential for the delivery of various infrastructure projects.
“There is a need for innovative policies to mobilise and allocate resources more effectively, and for better coordination amongst all African stakeholders and international partners” the Vice President indicated.
Africa’s challenges are opportunities
Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, in his remarks said Africa’s challenges are great opportunities for the continent to exploit in order to develop.
Mene said the development of the Africa continent is long overdue and this is the time to fast-track all efforts aimed at developing the continent.
“It is really an honour for us to be part of this dialogue because we have an opportunity as Africans to develop a positive narrative about the challenges that confront us. Indeed, I believe that Africa’s challenges are Africa’s opportunities,” Wamkele Mene said.
He urged participants of the dialogues to dig deep into their thoughts and proffer effective ways and policies that the AfCFTA can fall on in order to achieve the objectives of the AfCFTA.
Success of the AfCFTA
Founder and chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, on his part, observed that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) promises economic integration hence its success will be the collective success of the African continent.
In his statement at the opening ceremony of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues Mr Otchere-Darko said “AfCFTA’s success is our (Africa) success. If it works, it will boost significantly trade and investments, provide jobs and increase prosperity across the continent, like never before.”
“The AU in 2018 adopted the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which has the all-important goal of turning Africa into the world’s largest single market.
“This, we believe, is the biggest promise this century for the prosperity of Africa and the African. It is potentially, the world’s most exciting economic project this century. And, this is what brings us here and now”, Otchere-Darko said.
“How do we get the private sector to be deliberately and actively engaged in delivering the great ambition that AfCFTA represents? How do we, as Africa’s private sector, make the fulfilment of this promise our project?
“AfCFTA, which is headquartered in Accra, Ghana, promises economic integration. Its success is our success. If it works, it will boost significantly trade and investments, provide jobs and increase prosperity across the continent, like never before” he added.
According to the APN founder, “in order for it (AfCFTA) to work and work for us, the workings of the AfCFTA must be seen and felt from this onset to be for the people of Africa. For our collective ownership and shared benefit. It must be owned by businesses in Africa”.
“The combined voices of Africa’s businesses, big and small, must be heard and felt. The aggregate value of enterprises and industries across Africa must be networked, coordinated and impactfully leveraged” Mr Otchere-Darko posited.
The APD
The Africa Prosperity Dialogues are symbolically dubbed the Kwahu Summit because the Kwahus of Ghana, the host nation, represent entrepreneurialship and trade and are known to support each other excel in business. Kwahu is also the highest elevation of habitable lands in Ghana.
The organisers of the Kwahu Summit aim to support through enhanced intra-Africa trade, the elevation of Africa and her people to the highest summit of human living, dignity and prosperity.
The 2023 Africa Prosperity Dialogues is the first of what will be an annual event and being organised by the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) and its partners, which include the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat located in Ghana, the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana (the host nation of AfCFTA).
The other partners are; United Nations Development Programme (Africa), the Africa Prosperity Fund, the Ghana Investments Promotion Centre (GIPC), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Africa-America Institute.
The Summit brings into practical focus the continent’s critical challenges and industrialisation priorities and advance aggressively the commercial and infrastructural interventions to achieve the vision of creating the largest single market in the world of some 1.4 billion Africans.
