Joseph Atta-Mensah, the principal policy advisor at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has said that the Africa Prosperity Dialogues is coming at the right time to discuss the threats to trade and commerce on the continent.
Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (18 January), Atta-Mensah said, “one great problem for the whole continent is the issue of movement of people, movement of capital, that is why the African Union is important.”
“Businesses always complain that governments are not giving them the right policy framework, but you know in North America businesses are the ones who lobby for policies. That is why I think this dialogue is so important,” he added.
“What we need to do is work on our regulations because the regulations in Kenya is different from the regulations in Lesotho. So, is there a way we could look into it to harmonise these regulations to make it easier for trading to take place.”
“We are looking for ways we could make it easier so that when you have goods at the ports they don’t stay longer.
“We don’t need money to implement the free movement of people, we are going to make sure we get the minimum 15 countries to rally so that people can move freely on the continent,” Atta-Mensah said.
“So, I hope the businesses tell Akufo-Addo what they want him to do and through them the heads of state can raise this in February in Addis Ababa when the leadership of the continent meets.
“There is no better servant on our continent than our president. One thing I know for a fact is that he has fought for the continent in terms of AfCFTA and he has fought for Ghana, and we have to give him a lot of credit for it,” he said.
The Africa Prosperity Dialogues
The Africa Prosperity Dialogues (Kwahu Summit) is a strategic platform where the movers and shakers of the African economy will elevate the AfCTA objectives from ambitions to real actions.
The Summit will be a one-of-a-kind event happening from 26th to 28th January, where African leaders from diverse areas of national endeavour will gather each year to discuss and share experiences on issues and initiatives required for Africa to achieve the goal of shared prosperity and shape the Africa Agenda for Action.
The maiden Summit would focus on how to expedite the implementation of the agreed initiatives within the AfCFTA trade bloc. It will bring into practical focus the continent’s critical challenges and industrialization priorities and advance aggressively the commercial and infrastructural interventions to achieve the vision of an Africa Beyond Aid.
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