The rest of the world seems to be moving a little faster than the African Continent. The Continent is arguably, the richest in terms of resources. This, however, has not seen a correspondent response in terms of its development. Africa has been battling with structural vulnerabilities for years. The Continent has been over-relying on natural resource exports. Africa, no doubt, needs to, with much urgency, take greater control of its destiny.
It is in this light that AfCFTA was birthed. Since its formation, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area still faces practical challenges. Africa needs to take pragmatic measures to propel the Continent to a level where it can compete favorably with the other continents.
AfCFTA has an objective of creating a single market for goods, services, facilitated by movement of persons in order to deepen the economic integration of the African continent and in accordance with the Pan African Vision of “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa” enshrined in Agenda 2063;
It is also meant to create a liberalized market for goods and services through successive rounds of negotiations and to contribute to the movement of capital and natural persons and facilitate investments building on the initiatives and developments in the State Parties and RECs;
AfCFTA also aims at laying the foundation for the establishment of a Continental Customs Union at a later stage and to promote and attain sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality and structural transformation of the State Parties.
The trading bloc also intends to enhance the competitiveness of the economies of State Parties within the continent and the global market and to promote industrial development through diversification and regional value chain development, agricultural development and food security, amongst other objectives.
This is why the Africa Prosperity Dialogues-Kwahu Summit 2023, under the auspices of the Africa Prosperity Network, is organizing this fora. It is bringing together Africa’s leading voices to think, plan and work together for Africa’s single market.
The dialogues are also used to unlock infrastructure blockages to get businesses whether big or small to trade better across Africa, etc.
These dialogues will allow Africa’s top CEOs, young and women entrepreneurs own the process of making AfCFTA work for greater intra-Africa trade. The Dialogues offers businesses big and small, the unique opportunity to meet with political leaders to join forces to address these challenges. The participants of the summit are:
* African Heads of State
* Heads of Regional Economic Communities within the AU
* Heads of Africa’s multinational corporations
* Leading African entrepreneurs
* The AU Secretariat
* The AfCFTA Secretariat
* Leading thought leaders The CARICOM Secretariat
* Ministers of finance, trade, industry, and infrastructure
* Young entrepreneurs in Africa and the African Diaspora
* Heads of multinational corporations with a strong presence in Africa
* Heads of Trade Associations
* Heads of development banks
* Heads of Africa-focused organizations
* Influential figures in the African Diaspora
* Heads of State-owned Corporations.
The Summit takes off at Safari Valley Resort, Adukrom and the Peduase Presidential Lodge near Aburi in the Eastern Region between 26th and 29th January, 2023.
“APN is excited that the much-awaited Africa Prosperity Dialogues are finally here and once again Ghana will be in the spotlight as Africa gathers in the centre of the world. We are hopeful that this ambition will translate into action to transform Africa,” said Kweku Obeng Adjei, Communications Manager for the summit.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
