New brainstorming event in preparation to advance Africa’s economic integration and prosperity agenda

Preparations are ongoing for the launch of the 2025 edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues, scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghana, from Thursday, 30 January to Saturday, 1 February 2025. Over 3,000 delegates from more than 46 countries worldwide, including several African Heads of State, are expected to converge at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) to discuss how to advance Africa’s economic integration and prosperity agenda. Specific sessions will cover topics crucial for Africa’s long-term prosperity, including female entrepreneurship, housing, payments, youth empowerment, public-private partnerships, and venture capital and private equity.

The Africa Prosperity Dialogues is an annual event, whose first edition took place in Ghana from January 26–28, 2023, which is organized by the Africa Prosperity Network (a Ghanaian private not-for-profit organization) jointly with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. The event is an occasion for African policymakers, captains of industries and representatives of Multilateral Development Agencies and International Organizations active in Africa to exchange views on policies, initiatives and actions needed for Africa to achieve the goal of a more economically integrated continent. Last year the event mainly focused on the AfCFTA, and in particular on the achievements and lessons learned since its launch and the challenges in the implementation of the agreement.  We documented the relevant sessions in two posts (here and here).

The APD 2025 theme for this year will be: “Delivering the African Single Market Through Infrastructure: Invest, Connect, Integrate.” The event will therefore focus on infrastructure development and attraction of investments to support an enhanced integration process in the continent, which is critical to realising Africa’s vision of a single, interconnected continental market.

The importance and the critical role of infrastructure in achieving the vision of a fully integrated African single market cannot be understated. No trade and effective AfCFTA implementation is possible without achieving significant improvements in infrastructure connectivity across Africa. This is because at present, the current transport infrastructure gaps in the continent (roads, railways, ports, airports), result in high transportation costs that make intra-African trade less competitive and the African products particularly expensive for the end consumer. For instance, the African Union Framework for boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services recently calculated that transport costs of agricultural goods, in some parts of Africa, represent up to a third of the farm gate price (i.e., the price at which an agricultural product is sold from the farm to the first buyer). There is therefore a risk that the benefits of tariff reductions under the AfCFTA will be completely nullified by these gaps, if they will not be quickly filled.  Moreover, inadequate infrastructure causes long delays in the transport of goods, which in turn leads to additional insurance and warehousing costs, with an increased risk of spoilage of those goods that are perishable (which represent a significant part of intra-African trade). Finally, poor infrastructure limits access to markets, especially in remote areas, hindering the movement of goods and services within the continent and causing loss of market opportunities for African businesses (and not only).

But infrastructure does not mean only roads and transport facilities.

In today's interconnected world, reliable energy and robust digital infrastructure is essential for economic growth and social development. Investment in both sectors is absolutely critical for supporting industrialization processes in the various African nations and for building strong and resilient regional value chains, which among the final objectives of the AfCFTA. In particular, electrification and digitalization of Africa is key for:

1)    Automation of production processes: Industries require reliable and affordable energy to operate machinery and power production processes. Without a low-cost access to energy, industrial growth is severely hampered.

2)    Gains in productivity: Consistent and reliable energy sources enhance productivity and efficiency within industries, which leads to economies of scale and lower production costs, essential for increased competitiveness of African products.

3)    Technological Advancement: access to energy and robust internet connectivity facilitate the adoption of new technologies by businesses which are essential for industrial development. This includes deep learning models and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, which are energy and digital intensive technologies.

Energy and digital infrastructure are also strictly intertwined. For example, renewable energy sources often rely on sophisticated digital technologies for monitoring, control, and grid integration.

Finally, another important aspect to be pointed out is that investment in the energy and digital sectors can create numerous jobs in a variety of areas like power generation, transmission, and distribution, software development, digital content creation & marketing, cybersecurity, and e-commerce, to name a few.

It is hoped that the new edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues will lay the foundation for new collaborative initiatives between African governments, Development Partners and private sector actors. In a continent of such a vast size, and beset by so many problems, it is essential that all forces move together, by creating synergies and partnerships that can foster growth… starting with quality infrastructure development.