Captains of industry, international community gear up for 2024 Africa Prosperity Dialogues

Heads of institutions, captains of industry and leaders of the international community say they are geared up for the second edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD2024), which will take place in Ghana from Thursday 25 to Saturday 27 January 2024.

The APD will be hosted by President Akufo-Addo under the theme “Delivering Prosperity in Africa: Produce, Add Value, Trade”, and will take place at Peduase Lodge in the Aburi Hills.

In the lead-up to the APD, the organiser of the Dialogues, the Africa Prosperity Network (APN), hosted a cocktail reception for partners and stakeholders on Thursday (23 November). With barely two months to go to the main event, the APN wanted to bring partners up to speed on preparations and the direction for the three-day event.

Deliverables

In opening remarks to welcome guests to the cocktail, the executive chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, said that APD II “will see heads of businesses on the African continent come together, think together, plan together and work together with the political leadership on how to make single-market trade a reality”.

“We are not just going to have conversations, we will see deliverables from there [the APD]. And whatever comes out of the Dialogues, there will be a compact that will be presented to the AU for their consideration,” Otchere-Darko said.

Prosperity

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahiru (K T) Hammond, was the special guest for the occasion.

He said the Ministry of Trade is Ghana’s fulcrum for driving trade, industry and private sector development, aligning with the broader objectives of APD2024, which centre on producing, adding value and trade.

Hammond said a thriving productive sector, through value addition, is the bedrock of economic prosperity and that is why the second edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues in January 2024 is an event to which he looks forward.

“I’m elated that this platform unites us in a shared vision to unlock Africa’s immense potential by fostering robust partnerships and collaborations. It’s through such collaborations that we can propel the AfCFTA [African Continental Free Trade Area] agenda, enabling inclusive growth, job creation and shared prosperity for all Africans,” the minister said.

“The opportunity to engage with esteemed leaders, industry experts and visionary minds aligns seamlessly with our commitment to further elevate Africa’s economic growth,” Hammond said.

“I extend my deepest appreciation to the organisers, the Office of the President, AfCFTA, the Africa Prosperity Network, and all partners for this initiative. Together, let us persist in our efforts, united in our resolve to chart a course toward an Africa brimming with prosperity and boundless opportunities for all,” Hammond added.

New thinking

Alex Apau Dadey, executive chairman of the KGL Group, a wholly Ghanaian-owned group of companies with interests in technology innovation, fintech, logistics, trade and property development, among other areas, said KGL was delighted to partner with the organisers of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues to host the cocktail event.

Dadey declared that there is a need for “new thinking” about how African countries can attract wealth on to the continent for investment. The APD, he says, is a perfect platform to devise innovative ways to build African conglomerates, which will, in turn, transform the continent.

The KGL boss further said it is time for African businesses to invest in the Western world and repatriate returns on these investments to Africa to build the continent’s economy, just as Western countries are doing in Africa and using their investment revenues to develop their own lands.

Poised to deliver

The acting chief executive officer of the APN, Njack Kane, said his team is poised to deliver a world-class event that will be a platform for business leaders to connect with each other and make tangible deals that will result in solid business outcomes.

Kane expressed his pleasure and honour to join and lead a tight team of professionals at the Africa Prosperity Network, all of whom are committed to help execute the vision set out by the APN’s founder, Gabby Otchere-Darko.

He also expressed the APN’s appreciation to its former executive secretary, Hannah Awuku, who left the organisation at the end of September 2023.

Kane said her contribution to the success of the APN as an organisation and the maiden edition of the APD cannot be overemphasised, and wished her well in her future endeavours.

Background

The first edition of the APD in 2023 resulted in the unanimous adoption of the Action Compact by the 36th Ordinary Session of the African Union in February 2023.

This groundbreaking initiative forged a crucial partnership between the continent’s private sector and governments to promote the implementation of the AfCFTA.

Exploring the theme “The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): From Ambition to Action, Delivering Prosperity through Continental Trade”, APD2023 aligned seamlessly with the AU Summit’s overarching theme.

Building on the success of APD2023, APD2024 offers an invaluable opportunity to engage the private and public sectors, development finance Institutions, influential thought leaders, civil society actors and youth organisations in the process of syncing Africa’s economic priorities.

The Dialogues will also showcase flagship projects and initiatives which are both scalable and replicable and are ready for financing and implementation with the objective of significantly enhancing trade and investment among African nations.

This will be achieved by focusing more on adding value to what is produced and also on how best to facilitate trade and investment across African markets and beyond.

The Dialogues will bring into focus the continent’s critical challenges and priorities, with a key focus on bolstering value addition and infrastructural development, championing agriculture and food security, sustainable development of natural resources, and industrialisation. Technology and financing also play an essential role in Africa’s prosperity narrative.

Objectives

The strategic objectives of APD 2024, which will run under the theme “Delivering Prosperity in Africa – Produce, Add Value, Trade”, are fourfold.

First is to facilitate a comprehensive dialogue that brings together key stakeholders from government, business, civil society, and academia to discuss and develop inclusive and realistic strategies for delivering prosperity in Africa.

The second objective is “to promote and strengthen regional and continental integration, particularly in the context of the AU Agenda 2063 and as a means to foster intra-African trade, economic growth and prosperity”.

The third objective is to prioritise the inclusion of marginalised populations, women and youth in Africa’s development agenda and ensure that prosperity is truly inclusive and, lastly, the Dialogues aim “to provide a platform for sharing best practices, lessons learned and innovative solutions that can be replicated across the continent”.

Partners

The 2024 edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues is being organised by the Africa Prosperity Network in collaboration with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, situated in Accra.

The other partners are the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Africa, African Development Bank (AfDB), African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), United Nations Economic Forum for Africa (UNECA), Africa Business Council (AfBC), Africa-America Institute (AAI), Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), Africa Soft Power and Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC).

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra

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