Accra: Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has called on African countries to take decisive steps to move from dependency to integration to unlock shared prosperity for the continent. She said Africa's future must be intentionally shaped to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), women, and young people to achieve their goals, stressing that any development path that excluded these groups was unsustainable. The Vice President made the call at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD26) in Accra.
According to Ghana News Agency, the Dialogue is on the theme: 'Empowering SMEs, women and youth in Africa's market: innovate, collaborate and trade.' Prof. Opoku-Agyemang emphasized that a future excluding young people, women, and small enterprises is not viable. She explained that the idea of a continental 'reset' was to move Africa from fragmentation to integration and from exporting potential to building prosperity at home, noting that the vision of Africa as a single integrated economic space remained unfinished.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang described the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), headquartered in Accra, as a historic opportunity to deepen intra-African trade, investment, and mobility. She emphasized that borders should serve as connectors rather than barriers. She noted that SMEs accounted for more than 80 per cent of employment on the continent, women made up nearly half of Africa's workforce, and young people constituted over 60 per cent of the population, yet their participation in cross-border trade remained limited.
Fewer than 20 per cent of African SMEs are engaged in export trade, while women and youth continue to face constraints in access to finance, skills, mobility, and markets. The Vice President said Ghana was supporting Africa's integration agenda through initiatives such as the 24-hour economy policy and the 'Big Push' infrastructure development programme, aimed at boosting productivity, trade, and industrial growth in line with ECOWAS and African Union priorities.
Mrs Matilda Asante-Asiedu, the Second Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana, said efficient cross-border payment systems were critical to the success of Africa's single market. She added that high transaction costs and fragmented payment systems disproportionately affected SMEs, women, and young people. Ghana's participation in the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System was highlighted as a means to facilitate trade in local currencies.
Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the Africa Prosperity Network Advisory Council, stated that empowering SMEs, women, and youth was essential to the success of the AfCFTA and Africa's long-term development. She remarked that Africa's progress would be measured not by declarations or summits, but by jobs created, businesses scaled, borders opened, and rising prosperity for its people.
The Africa Prosperity Dialogues is an annual high-level platform convened by the Africa Prosperity Network to advance practical solutions for economic integration. It focuses on accelerating AfCFTA implementation, promoting intra-African trade and investment, and removing barriers to trade and mobility across the continent.