In an effort to hasten industrialization on the continent, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has emphasised the need for African nations to prioritise investment in smart infrastructure.

According to Dr. Bawumia, such investments are essential to the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Bawumia stated that Africa must take courageous action to combat poverty.

The vice president said during the launch of the Africa Prosperity Dialogue at the Safari Valley Resort in Adukrom in the Eastern Region today, January 26, 2023.

“There is the need for smart investment in critical infrastructure, as a continent. We need to produce and trade our way out of poverty and underdevelopment, and we cannot do that without investing in smart infrastructure across the continent,” Bawumia said.

“While the last decades have seen some positive investment, there is the need for additional resources to finance the arteries for trade, which include the physical infrastructure such as roads, rail and energy, digital infrastructure such as data centres, and financial infrastructure to allow for integration of our financial markets,” he said.

The Africa Prosperity Dialogues are symbolically dubbed the Kwahu Summit because the Kwahu people of Ghana, the host nation, represent entrepreneurship and trade and are known to support each other to excel in business.

The Kwahu Traditional Area 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 are the first edition of what will be an annual event. The Dialogues are 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.