Africa Prosperity Dialogues: Remove visa requirements on African countries to foster trade, says Atta-Mensah
Joseph Atta-Mensah was speaking ahead of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) slated from 26-28 January in Ghana
A principal policy advisor at the Economic Commission for Africa, Joseph Atta-Mensah, has suggested to African governments to remove all requirements for visa on the continent to help foster trade.
Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Atta-Mensah said, “You know, we fear each other and I don’t know why. We always use security as an issue to prevent people from coming. But I think if there is a total collaboration among our security forces, to have data on someone…”
“Because just as there are bad people, there are good people who want to do good business to uplift the continent. So what we need to do is remove the VISAs completely, not visa on arrival. And that can be done by having a common African passport. ECOWAS does it, we can do it and put on it African Union,”
Listen to Joseph Atta-Mensah in the attached audio clip below:
Watch the full interview in the attached video clip below:
Africa Prosperity Dialogues
The Africa Prosperity Dialogues are symbolically dubbed the Kwahu Summit because the Kwahus of Ghana, the host nation, represent entrepreneurship and trade and are known to support each other excel in business. Kwahu is also the highest habitable elevation in Ghana.
The organisers of the Kwahu Summit aim to support, by building enhanced intra-African trade, the elevation of Africa and her people to the highest summit of human living, dignity and prosperity.
The 2023 Africa Prosperity Dialogues is the first of what will be an annual event. The Dialogues are being organised by the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) and partners, which include the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, sited in Ghana, the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana.
Other partners are the United Nations Development Programme (Africa), the Africa Prosperity Fund, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Africa-America Institute.
The summit will bring into practical focus the continent’s critical challenges and industrialisation priorities and advance aggressively the commercial and infrastructural interventions to achieve the vision of creating the largest single market in the world, with roughly 1.4 billion Africans.
Summit venues
The Kwahu Summit will be a pan-African economic platform which brings together the great minds and might of Africa, both in Africa and the diaspora, to think, plan and work together to expedite implementation of the agreed initiatives within the AfCFTA and to shape the Africa Agenda for Action.
The business and policy leaders’ dialogues, which will take place from 26-27 January 2023, will be held at the Safari Valley Resort in Adukrom, in the Akuapem Mountains.
On 28 January, the Peduase Presidential Lodge in Aburi, also in the Akuapem Mountains, will host the presidential and business executives’ dialogues.
Fred Dzakpata
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