AfCFTA will ensure shared prosperity — Gabby Otchere-Darko
The Executive Chairman of the African Prosperity Network (APN), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has stated that the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a non-negotiable tool for ensuring that majority of Africans benefit and enjoy shared prosperity.
He has, therefore, urged the private sector on the continent to own and utilise the free trade area to drive the required prosperity and development.
Mr Otchere-Darko made the call at a press briefing about the African Prosperity Dialogues (APD) 2024 in Accra yesterday.
The dialogues, which will attract African leaders, captains of industry and other players, among others, will be held at the Peduase Lodge in the Eastern Region from Wednesday, January 24 to Saturday 27, this year.
The programme would include an exclusive high-level summit to be hosted by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
There would be a series of high-level sessions examining the current status of food sovereignty, natural resources, value addition, infrastructure development, investments, ongoing flagship execution as well as scalable and replicable models ready for execution.
The open and inclusive dialogues will also emphasise the critical enablers and prerequisites to fast-track delivery, propelling Africa towards a shared vision of prosperity.
APD 2024 will focus on ICT access, transport and logistics provision, and infrastructure development.
There will be a high-level Presidential Dialogue session between participating Heads of State and champions of African industries.
Mr Otchere-Darko is of the strong opinion that every effort and resources must be mobilised to ensure that within the first decade, AfCFTA, which is the biggest project since the formation of the African Union 61 years ago becomes fruitful and successful, “because if we can’t get it right, we will never get it right”.
Reason
He said it was for the success of the implantation of the free trade that the APN was organising various activities and programmes, including the prosperity dialogues to find a way to ensure that the AfCFTA was supported to attain the intended results.
“The political leadership have come out with this idea of creating the world’s single largest market.
The idea of a single market is about the economy.
Who are the drivers of the economy — the private sector, so we thought that it is important to find a way to let the private sector own the AfCFTA and drive it,” he added.
He said the private sector must execute the agenda in partnership with the political leadership and commended the political leaders for the enthusiastic support they had offered.
“It is a recognition by the political leadership that in order for us to move forward we should find a way to aggregate our resources, human strength, national resources and value chain; we need to find linkages,” Mr Otchere-Darko stated.
The Chief of Staff at the AfCFTA, Silver Ojakol, commended the APN for working assiduously to encourage various industry players and other stakeholders to appreciate the need to resort to trade among Africans through value addition.
He said over the years Africa’s natural resources propelled the industrialisation of America, Europe and China and added that it was high time Africa added value to its natural resources to aid its own prosperity.
Mr Ojakol said with Africa’s contribution to global manufacturing being at two per cent and contribution to global trade three per cent, “this disparity highlights the need for industrialisation, improved infrastructure and energy solutions to enhance production”.
Focus
A member of the Advisory Council, Dr Eugene Owusu, said the decision by the heads of state of the Africa Union (AU) to unanimously adopt the Action Compact of the maiden edition of the APD was a big political statement.
He said the overarching idea of this year’s presidential summit was to have an interactive and candid conversation between heads of state and business leaders.
The Chief Executive of the APN, Njack Kane, said the discussion and dialogue would be around agriculture and food security; natural resources and value addition, manufacturing; infrastructure and ICT; finance and investment, and transport and logistics.