Peduase Presidential Lodge, Aburi, Eastern Region, Ghana//-The Senior Vice President for Markets at the MTN Group, Ebenezer Asante has urged African leaders as a matter of urgency to break the numerous trade barriers to lift the continent out of poverty and under-development.
According to him, “It is about time with the enablement of technology for us to allow the issue of sovereignty that is leading to closed borders to give way”.
“The tyranny of sovereignty must give way and we must break the borders for African trade to lift,” Mr Asante said during a panel discussion at the opening ceremony of the ongoing seconding edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) on Thursday, 25 January at the Peduase Presidential Lodge in Aburi in the Eastern Region.
He is not enthused with the way the African leaders protect the sovereignty of their various countries over the integration of the continent.
Reacting to the news that Ghana is in the process of implementing a visa-free policy for all Africans this year, Mr Asante noted that the policy should have been implemented 20 years ago to enable free movement of people, goods and services, and trade on the continent.
Whereas the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) seeks to ride on the back of digitalisation to facilitate trade on the continent, free movement of people should have been enabled long before today, he said.
Mr Asante who made these remarks in the presence of Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, urged the African leaders to stop the over-protection of their countries and open up for the socio-economic development of the continent.
“Digitisation should be able to enable productivity in Africa. For us to be part of that distinctive global trade to capture top value we need technology to be able to do that.”
Mr Asante stated that Africans must move the concept of digitization beyond just a slogan to actualise it and reap the benefits thereof.
In his words: “I see digital public infrastructure before developed across the continent and that is something that the peoples of Africa must embrace and make use of to drive trade and improve lives across Africa”.
Mr Asante went on to encourage Africa to fully embrace technology to be able to be part of that distinctive global trade to capture top value to enable to creation of more opportunities for teeming youth.
Contributing to the panel discussion, the Founder of Engineers and Planners, Ibrahim Mahama called on African countries to retain most of the gold produced in their countries to help stabilise their currencies.
As of the second quarter of 2023, the value of gold exports from Ghana had reached approximately US $1.71 billion. In the full year 2022, around US$6.6 billion of the commodity was exported, according to him.
On his part, the CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant appealed to Africa to collaborate to maximise the benefit from its numerous mineral resources.
He said: “The production of batteries in Africa is much cheaper than you will find in China and yet we export all our components to China.
“Look at lithium; it is in abundance on the continent. Almost the whole of West Africa is blessed with lithium. We need to make use of it now.”
“And when you look at the continent, we are resource-rich, so why don’t we have a regional approach to resource management policies, where we share for mutuality”.
The three-day (25-27 January) event which is on the theme-‘Developing Prosperity in Africa: Produce, Add, Value and Trade’ was opened by President Akufo-Addo
The ongoing APD organised by the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) in collaboration with the AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra seeks to emphasise the unique opportunity that the AfCFTA offers Africa and its people to break free from the pervasive perceptions of poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment.
Five African heads of state and another from the Caribbean, as well as several top businesses, policymakers, diplomats, and thought leaders from across the African continent and the diaspora are participating in the second edition of the APD.
