Webinar of Africa’s Media Heavyweights: what do you know about the AfCFTA and why should the media care?

The Africa Prosperity Network (APN) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat are getting ready to host African Heads of State, top business leaders, heads of international development institutions and DFIs, social change-makers and other Pan-African thought leaders at the next Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) in Ghana from 25-27 January 2024. The theme for APD 2024 is: “Delivering Prosperity in Africa – Produce, Add Value, Trade”.

Ahead of this high-profile conference in Ghana, the APN secretariat, in collaboration with the AfCFTA, is organising a media webinar on Tuesday, 19 December 2023, to help unpack and discuss issues that are pertinent to the realisation of the AfCFTA’s single-market focus – collective ownership by the people of Africa.

Themed: “What Do You Know About the AfCFTA ― and Why Should the Media Care?”, the discussion will examine the media’s role in mobilising mass engagement and participation with the AfCFTA and the opportunities opened up by it, especially as it is of immense benefit for the growth of SMEs in Africa and also Global Africa (the sixth region of Africa).

Tuesday’s webinar, which takes place from 14:00 hours to 15:20 hours GMT, will feature some of Africa’s media heavyweights, including Ferial Haffajee, Charles Onyango-Obbo, Andrew Mwenda and Samuel Attah-Mensah.

This high-powered webinar will discuss ways of internalizing and normalizing the unfolding reality of facilitating the free movement of people, goods and services among Africa’s 1.4 billion people. It is also to prompt both AfCFTA actors and influential media players to do more to persuade people across Africa about the formidable prosperity potential of intra-African trade.

A major question that will emerge will be: What can the AfCFTA and AfCFTA member states do to support the media to build public education about the new, open Africa, and how seriously do African journalists themselves take the task of spreading the message?

The AfCFTA, APN’s principal partner, has been at the forefront of Africa’s new trade paradigm and brought a new lease of life to the continent’s efforts of building the world’s largest single market. But the lingering question of how to realise the single market through actionable and bankable policy positions has been brought to the fore.

In an attempt to garner the needed actions that will engender prosperity across the continent, APD 2024, which will be hosted by Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of the Republic of Ghana, next January, proposes a theme and a set of thematic areas that speak to Africa’s transformation through the prioritization of value addition economies across the continent.

The media webinar is essentially to get participants to explore and strategise on information-disseminating services and how the media can engage and inform people across the African continent, as well as global audiences, to participate actively in the AfCFTA and capitalise on the opportunities that it presents.

The webinar will feature panellists with deep knowledge of Africa’s trade ecosystem as well as an appreciation of the theme for APD 2024, including Toma Imirhe, Tsotetsi Makong, Edith Dankwa and Njack Kane. The other high-profile speakers include Nana Aba Anamoah, Kojo Mensah and George Jahraa.

Among invited guests are Elizabeth Ohene, Onyekachi Wambu, Grace Khoza, Petina Gappah, Audrey Gadzekpo, Chiké Frankie Edozien, Joel Kibazo, Liz Gomis and Dele Momodu.

Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) is organised by the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) in collaboration with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat. Next January’s dialogues will be hosted by the President of Ghana, who has invited several of his fellow African Heads of State, as well as the President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, President Irfaan Ali.

The APD 2024 retreat will take place from 25-27 January 2024 at Peduase Presidential Lodge, Aburi Hills, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. There will be a presidential dinner gala and the Africa Prosperity Champions Awards ceremony on the night of 26 January at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel in Accra.