African leaders push for more value addition at Africa Prosperity Dialogues

Some African leaders are pushing the private sector and governments to leverage on the diverse strengths among countries to ensure that natural resources are transformed into value-added products for realising a free intra-continental trade.

The President, Nana Ado Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Mr Joaquim Alberto Chissano, former President, Mozambique, Wamkele Mene, Secretary General, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat made this call at the opening of the 2024 Africa Prosperity Dialogues.

The three-day summit is being organised by the African Prosperity Network in partnership with the AfCFTA Secretariat at Aburi in the Eastern Region.

In his speech, President Akufo-Addo said it was important for business, investment and political leaders on the African continent to work together “to turn prospects into productivity that can generate prosperity for our people.”

“Africa is not a poor continent, in fact, she’s too rich to be poor; our continent has oil, gas, minerals and abundance of sunlight. We have some 65 per cent of all arable land available to feed nine billion people globally by 2030,” he said.

The President said that the continent also has the most youthful population in the world, as such, there was an urgent need to build capacities to industrialise, add value and invest in infrastructure to connect businesses to customers to propel intra-African trade.

“To unlock the full potential of trade for prosperity, let’s prioritise the development of efficient transportation and logistics infrastructure, streamline trade processes and embrace digital technologies that facilitates cross border transactions,” President Akufo-Addo said.

To make the AfCFTA meaningful, the President said that: “the government of Ghana is committed to ensuring visa free for all Africa travelling into the country, and that will be done before end of 2024.”

He, therefore, encouraged that the Africa Prosperity Dialogues found find ways to realise the commitments made by African governments to deepen their resolve in achieving the goals of the trade pact and transcend into actionable plans.

Mr Joaquim Alberto Chissano, former President, Mozambique, challenged the private sector and governments in Africa to be deliberate in adding value to natural resources to make the implementation of the intra-continental trade attainable.

Mr Chissano, who is also the Chairperson Africa Forum, noted that it was African people who would shape the narrative and ensure a prosperous future on the continent.

He encouraged businesses, investors and governments, leveraged on the diverse strengths and build on systems “that will produce and add value to feed our people and reduce hunger and ensure that every nation in Africa is food secure.”

Mr Wamkele Mene, Secretary General, AfCFTA Secretariat, encouraged the private sector to own the implementation of the free trade pact, saying, “It’s not the government that trade; it’s the private sector that trades.”

He expressed optimism that AfCFTA implementation offered precisely the instrument that would deliver the promise on an Africa that produced what it consumed.

For this reason, the Secretariat, Mr Mene, said had “developed a private sector strategy, identifying key sectors, which combined, creates a market of US$130 billion for investment across value chains.”

He also noted that the Secretariat had developed an AfCFTA tariff book, which enabled the private sector to determine with certainty, the tariffs that apply to the products they wanted to export.