The integration of the African Continent for the good of every individual has become an undeniable yearning for its leaders and citizenery.
Integration on all fronts, with extra focus on trade has become a top concern for leaders and businesses for years, regarding the prosperity and sustainability of the continent.
Leaders were present at the just ended, three-day, African Prosperity Dialogues have argued and stressed on the need for Africa to integrate solidly on doing business with itself with a single currency while it explored ways to enable the free movement of its people.
One such profound statements came from Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko “… the best way to achieve that economic freedom should be through economic integration. And economic integration is understanding that our economies on their own individually, based on the maps that were drawn some centuries ago In Berlin Is not the way to go, but that we should have an Africa without borders. An Africa where every African is a citizen of the continent, an Africa where even global Africans. By global Africans, we mean our brothers and sisters in the diaspora are citizens of this continent and Africa ….”
These deafening calls moved the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to promise the scrapping of Visas for Africans travelling into Ghana before he leaves office.
Yet this was not the only promise the President of Ghana made to the Political leaders and business heads who where present at the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD), 2024.
The Founder and Executive Chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) – organisers of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko and other leaders expressed frustration on the difficulties Africans have to deal with when it comes to connectivity and how we are connected economically.
Prior to that, Group Chief Commercial Officer, Selorm Adadevoh raised a similar point when he said”When we think of an African single market, one of the biggest opportunities we have is trade facilitation across borders. Which we have payment systems being to enable payment across borders. Today MTN exist in Nigeria and in Ghana, but I can’t complete a transaction between my Nigeria mobile money wallet and that of my Ghana mobile money wallet because there is barrier in-between which is a regulatory barrier”.
These leaders are calling on businesses and political leaders across Africa to pull down the ‘artificial’ barriers that prevent Africa from adding value to its economy.
“What is it that stops us from being able to transfer money from Ghana to Nigeria, from Nigeria to Kenya on that device, that has shown in Africa that is one of the easiest way to share and spread prosperity on our continent? The mobile phone. What is stopping us from having interoperability on the continent?” Mr Gabby quizzed.
He went on to acknowledge the tremendous work of the government of Ghana on being one of the few countries in Africa which has enable interoperability “Sitting here is the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, the first country that introduced interoperability among the networks on our continent or in the country. It happened here a few years ago led by the president, his vice president and of course, the governor of the Central Bank”.
To this end, President Akufo-Addo in his closing remarks of the three-day event promised to urge other African states to make interoperability a reality in Africa.
“I intend, with the help of my colleagues, to present the Peduase Compact to the 37th Ordinary Heads of States and Government in Addis Abaaba in three weeks times. There are items in this compact which I believe can be quickly implemented if we’re able to mobilise the needed political will. Such as achieving interoperability Across Africa. I promise with the support of my colleagues to do what we can to make interoperability a reality across member states member states”.
President Nana Akufo-Addo commended the success of the second edition of the African Prosperity Dialogues and added that other projects shall be urgently attended to, like the railway network across Africa, the Grand Inga Dam, and a dedicated airline to link Africa with the Caribbean.
