Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko
Ahead of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) and the Africa Prosperity Champions Awards (APCA) 2025, the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) held its annual Partners’ Cocktail engagement at the offices of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat, Trade House, in Accra as a prelude to the Dialogues and to secure the support of all partners.
The highly anticipated Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD 2025), which will take place in Accra, Ghana, from Thursday, 30 January, to Saturday, February 1, 2025, will focus on finding tangible solutions to the continent’s infrastructure deficit.
Over 1,000 business leaders, captains of industry, entrepreneurs, and heads of government on the African continent are expected to participate in the third 3rd edition of the Dialogues organized by APN, under the theme “Delivering Africa’s Single Market through Infrastructure: Invest Connect.”.
Speaking at the ceremony, Founder and Executive Chairman of Africa Prosperity Network (APN), Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, said that to achieve the prosperity of the African continent, measures must be taken to guarantee the free movement of goods and services across its over 50 borders.
Mr. Otchere-Darko observed that to bridge the continent’s existing infrastructure gap, the private sector must be engaged across the continent to drive the efforts aimed at building the requisite roads, railway lines, and air transport services, among others, in order to promote the continent’s quest to achieve a single market.
“We need to aggregate our worth, our work, the riches of our continent, the richness of our minds, and our potential. We need to find a way to somehow ignite what we have, working together — the politicians, business leaders, thought leaders – and all of us towards that singular goal of achieving the world’s largest single market,” Gabby Otchere-Darko said.
In a speech read on his behalf, Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of AfCFTA, said that “projections show that a fully implemented AfCFTA could create a market with combined consumer and business spending of $6.7 trillion by 2030 and $16.12 trillion by 2050” in Africa.”
He said that the theme of APD 2025 “is particularly relevant” because “infrastructure underpins AfCFTA’s success by reducing the cost of trade and enabling the seamless movement of goods, services, and people.
“Without investments in transport corridors, energy systems, and digital networks, the full potential of the AfCFTA cannot be realised. To bridge this gap, we call on all stakeholders to invest in Africa’s future. The private sector, in particular, has a critical role to play in unlocking infrastructure development through public-private partnerships (PPPs)” he said.
Ghana’s Minister for Energy, Herbert Krapa, observed in his remarks that some of the most critical infrastructure projects on the African continent are in the energy sector and Africa