As part of efforts to boost trade in Africa, stakeholders are tasking African governments to look within their countries and the continent as a whole in their bid for economic transformation.
It is for this reason that these industry players are organizing the ‘Kwahu Summit on Africa’s prosperity’ to provide the platform for various African heads of state, business leaders, heads of regional economic bodies, leading civil society actors across Africa and the African diaspora to chart actionable steps towards realizing the objectives and purposes of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in advancing intra-Africa trade..
Operating under the theme ‘AfCFTA: From Ambition to Action, Delivering Prosperity through Continental Trade’, the Summit will amplify public-private partnership, and foster collaboration among African states and businesses to develop intra African trade.
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Yofi Grant, speaking at the launch of the Summit emphasized the need for African governments to proactively direct global discourses and collaborations on Africa’s development.
According to him, it is about time Ghana is placed on the map to make it the best place to do business in Africa, hence the need for the Summit.
“Every year, all the regions of the world come up with their programs. They summon all the African stakeholders to tell us what they can do for us. When you look at world history, there is clear evidence that those nations which call themselves developed nations actually grew on the back of our resources and in some cases, our sweat. And yet, we go to their countries to listen to what they have to tell us. It’s about time that we reversed it. Let’s rather bring them to Africa.”
Sub-Saharan Africa’s success in the global market rests on deepening regional integration to scale up supply capacity and build regional value chains.
The establishment of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area presents opportunities to boost intra-African trade, strengthen the complementarities of production and exports, create employment, and limit the impact of commodity price volatility on the participants.
Wamkele Mene, the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat at the same event, emphasized the need for Africans to have impactful dialogues about Africa’s trade relations with the rests of the world in light of the state of intra-Africa trade and declared his outfit’s support for the Summit.
Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah expressed optimism that the Kwahu Summit will challenge Africa to do more.
He stressed, “If you pay attention to the thought leadership conversations from all over the world, you find that there are some parts of the world where more time is spent on stimulating conversations about what is possible and what can be achieved if we stretched our minds a bit more. And then there are some other parts of the world where a lot of the times spent bringing ourselves down in our conversations.”
“What the Kwaku Summit seeks to do is to challenge all of Africa and all of us to strive to do some more together; leverage the kind of opportunities and resources around us to do more.”
The maiden edition of the Kwahu Summit on Africa’s prosperity organized by the Africa Prosperity Network will take place at the Rock City Hotel in Kwahu on 28th and 29th October 2022 in collaboration with the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana, the AfCFTA Secretariat, and the Ghana Investment Promotion Center.
