Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew Bekele confirms participation in Africa Prosperity Dialogues
Mesfin Tasew Bekele said it is a delight for him to join an important dialogue series aimed at fast-tracking the implementation of the AfCFTA
The group chief executive officer of Ethiopian Airlines, Mesfin Tasew Bekele, has confirmed his participation in the maiden Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD), which is being organised by the Africa Prosperity Network and its partners, including the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat and the Government of Ghana.
Dubbed the Kwahu Summit, the first of these annual dialogues will take place from 26-28 January 2023 in Ghana, the host nation.
Focusing on intra-African trade, the Africa Prosperity Dialogues will bring together Africa’s political and business leaders to plan and work together on the all-important single-market project – the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – for the continent.
Confirming his participation to the Africa Prosperity Dialogues organisers via email, Mesfin Tasew Bekele said he is delighted to join such an important series, aimed at fast-tracking implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
He further signalled in his message that the board chairman of Ethiopian Airlines, Ato Girma Wake, will also be attending the event.
Ethiopian Airlines
Mesfin Tasew Bekele leads an organisation which aims to become the leading aviation group in Africa by 2025 by providing safe, market-driven and customer-focused passenger and cargo transport, aviation training, flight catering, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and ground services.
In addition, Tasew Bekele and his team at Ethiopia Airlines are on a mission to make the airline the most competitive on the African continent, and “to ensure that Ethiopian Airlines becomes an airline of choice to its customers, employer of choice to its employees and an investment of choice to its owner”.
It works further “to contribute positively to the socio-economic development of Ethiopia in particular and the countries to which it operates in general by undertaking … corporate social responsibilities and providing vital global air connectivity”.
About Mesfin Tasew
Mesfin Tasew was appointed the group chief executive officer of Ethiopian Airlines in March 2022. He joined the airline in 1984 as an associate engineer and rose up the ladder, serving in supervisorial and managerial positions in the areas of aircraft maintenance and engineering.
In 1997 he was appointed director of operations and technical systems support and in 1999 he became chief information officer. He was named the vice-president of maintenance and engineering in 2006.
Mesfin also served as the chief operating officer of Ethiopian Airlines from 2010-21, and as chief executive officer of Asky Airlines from April 2021 to March 2022.
He is a member of the board of governors of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
He holds BSC and MSc degrees in electrical engineering from Addis Ababa University. He also has a Master’s in business administration from the Open University in the UK.
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.
Wilberforce Asare
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