Story by, Nsor Paul Mensah
The Executive Chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network (APN), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darkoh, has called on all stakeholders to join efforts to realize the Africa dream. The dream is to achieve cross-border trade among African countries by eliminating impediments that increase transaction costs and limit market access.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darkoh made this call at the launch of a symposium, focusing on advancing mobile money interoperability across Africa. Which is scheduled to take place on Friday, July 5 2024. The symposium, to be held in collaboration with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA), will be under the theme: “Advancing Continental Interoperability for Africa's Economic Prosperity, Scaling Up Interoperability — Using Mobile Money to Buy & Sell Across Africa.”
Mr. Otchere-Darkoh made an urgent plea for stakeholders such as Central Banks and Telecommunications regulators and organizations, Telcos, Fintechs, political leadership in Africa, and the media to support the push for interoperability in Africa. He explained that there is a need for this to be achieved on the continent.
"Our focus as Africa Prosperity Network has been how we, together with our partners, can push the advocacy for a continent-wide interoperability. It will need the support of the media, it needs political will, it needs the buy-in of the central banks, it needs the buy-in of the regulators, and more importantly, the buy-in of the leadership of the continent, the regions, and the leadership of the various countries," he said.
He further noted that the idea of intra-African trade is hinged on the ability to get interoperability working on the continent.
"We believe that if we can get interoperability working, particularly in the areas where tens and millions of medium, small, and micro-scale enterprises on the continent operate, it will really make meaningful the whole idea of intra-African trade," the executive chairman of APN, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, added.
Mr. Gayheart Mensah Executive Director of Africa Prosperity Network (APN), Gayheart Mensah, added that the symposium on interoperability will bring together stakeholders in the entire value chain from the telecommunication sector, banking, political leaders, among others, to discuss the concept of interoperability and establish exactly what the continent needs to do to make interoperability a reality on the continent.
He urged the media to take particular interest in the interoperability agenda of the African continent and use their platforms to support this mission to integrate trade activities in Africa and among Africans.
"What Africa Prosperity Network is looking for is prosperity for Africa. Prosperity for Africa can only come if we can integrate our economies, align our value chains, and make sure that we trade a lot more among ourselves. We have everything on this continent, we can shut this continent and remain self-sufficient," Mr. Mensah said.
Ing. Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey,Recounting his ordeal in making payment to Nigeria some time back, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ing. Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, in his statement, called on Africa leaders to put measures in place to enhance financial inclusion in our payments systems. He said this will help to achieve the objectives for setting up AfCTA.
"AfCFTA will not happen if we don’t integrate [Africa’s] payment systems. The only way AfCFTA will happen, the only way African Union (AU) will happen, is when people are doing business together.
"Africa is leading the mobile money conversation, so if we really would want to integrate and get businesses happening, the place to do it is to make sure that we are interoperable and to do it on the fintech platform using mobile money as a base and allowing our fintech to also be able to operate on that," Dr. Ashigbey added.
Chief executive officer of Blue Space crowd, Mr. Samuel Amannor, posited that prosperity cannot happen without opportunity, and interoperability has the potential for delivering the opportunities needed for prosperity in Africa. He said that interoperability has the power to remove the borders that separate the countries on the continent.
The Africa Prosperity Network (APN) is a non-profit organization founded to advance the vision of “The Africa We Want” as outlined in the African Union's Agenda 2063, with a particular focus on promoting Africa’s prosperity and economic integration.
The organization runs the Africa Prosperity Dialogues, an initiative committed to creating the platforms for partnerships among political and business leaders, civil society, academia, and traditional authorities in Africa. This is aimed at driving the rapid development of the continent through dialogues and consensus-building on issues of trade, commerce, and strengthening of African economies.
The Africa Prosperity Dialogues series offer a strategic platform where the movers and shakers of the African economy elevate the economic integration objectives from ambitions to real actions.
Set in Accra, Ghana, the Africa Prosperity Dialogue (APD) is a one-of-a-kind event where African leaders from diverse areas of national endeavour gather each year to expedite, among other things, the implementation of the agreed initiatives within the AfCFTA trade bloc and shape the Africa Agenda for Action.
APD brings into practical focus, the continent’s critical challenges and industrialisation priorities and advance aggressively the commercial and infrastructural interventions to achieve the vision of an Africa Beyond Aid.
The APD is an annual conference held every January. It is a summit of the highest political and business decision-makers in Africa, supported by various leaders, who propose practical, actionable initiatives to enhance trade in Africa and create prosperity for Africans. The Summit accelerates investment and amplifies public-private partnerships.