FEATURED; Kwahu Summit to discuss Africa’s prosperity, intra-Africa trade

The Kwahu Summit for Africa’s Prosperity which will take place in Ghana from October 28 to 29, 2022 will bring together African decision makers and private sector to discuss Intra-African Trade and future prosperity of the continent. The maiden edition of the summit was organized by the Africa Prosperity Network in partnership with AfCFTA Secretariat, the Government of Ghana, and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). Hannah Akuwu, Executive Secretary of Africa Prosperity Network speaks to the media about the upcoming summit that will gather African leaders in politics and business ,scholars and academia. According to Hannah Akuwu, Executive Secretary of Africa Prosperity Network, the summit will gather African leaders in politics and business, scholars and academia and representatives from the diaspora. She said they will be showcasing the power that is within Africa to decide for Africa on ways, means and the tools that they think will lead to strategic networking and communication that will guide the Africa prosperity agenda, adding that they will also have discussions on all aspects of prosperity; in trade, energy, travel and tour, among others. In line with the summit, she said they are trying to put together a media network to ensure that the recommendations in all the things that are decided as well as the deals that are done and ensure that they are collaborations between businesses and between governments and the private sector. Gayheart Mensah, Board Member of Africa Prosperity Network addresses journalists during the press conference in Kigali on May 27. “We want to have a network of media entities that will help us hold the people who put these recommendations together or who make these commitments to move Africa forward accountable to become the monitors of these agreements. We want to ensure that the media becomes the watchdog of the commitments that are going to be made during the Kwehu Summit,” she said. Gayheart Mensah, Board Member of the Africa Prosperity Network tackled the challenges in the agriculture sector that Africa is currently facing such as losing fertilizers and wheat resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war which he said has nothing to do with Africa but affects it. He declared that it’s because Africa relies on a supply chain of products and services which Africans do not have control over, adding that those are the things that should inform decisions for Africa in the future. “In Kwehu, African political leaders and business persons ought to sit down and think about Africa. It is this partnership between politics and businesses that is going to drive development in Africa,” he said. Dr. Nkiru Balonwu, Founder Of The Africa Soft Power Project speaks during the press conference. Nkiru said that the project at large seeks to establish the continent’s creative and knowledge industries on the world stage. He noted that Africa has over relied on natural resources to the extent that today it is not able to sustain the economies, adding that in the summit, business people and politicians will sit and look internally and study the measures needed in order to promote trade in Africa, the pillars that will support the development and growth of Africa’s economies as well as how Africans can rely a lot more on themselves and trade a lot more within Africa. He noted that what will differentiate the summit from other summits is that it is not just going to be about conversations and discussions. “We are going to make sure that at the end of the summit, there are tangible deliverables and deals when it comes to trade among African countries as well as agreement on how to make progress with policies, for instance, that comes from African Union and the decisions that will lead to tangible implementation,” he said. He urged all businesspersons and politicians in Rwanda to attend the summit so that they can together change Africa for the better. According to Dr Nkiru Balonwu, Founder of the Africa Soft Power Project which continues its theme of promoting May as ‘Africa month’, as the project at large seeks to establish the continent’s creative and knowledge industries on the world stage. She said they are partnering with the Africa Prosperity Network on Kwahu Summit for convening on the continent and are discussing how Africa can become what it is supposed to be. “We have creatives, we have a young economy, we have the youngest population in the world. How can we tie into that youth energy to change the direction where Africa is going? How can we be proactive in the way Africa is seen or presented? We have to ask ourselves what we can do about that and that’s what we are doing,” she said. He added: “For us, the power of collaboration is how Africa can become what it is supposed to be. We are the future of Africa and we have to be here and that’s why we are here.”

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FEATURED; Kwahu Summit to discuss Africa’s prosperity, intra-Africa trade