President Akufo-Addo has made a fervent plea to the African Union (AU) and fellow heads of state during the 37th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly on Sunday, February 18.
He urged support for the implementation of an Africa-wide mobile telephony interoperability system.
Addressing the assembly at the Nelson Mandela Plenary Hall in Addis Ababa, President Akufo-Addo advocated for the adoption of the 2024 Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD 2024) Compact Document.
Specifically, he called for the adoption of a continental interoperability network across all member states.
The President stressed that such a system would significantly enhance Africa’s efforts toward establishing the world’s largest single market under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
By facilitating the seamless buying and selling of goods and services across borders in local currencies, millions of Africans would benefit.
President Akufo-Addo highlighted the importance of embracing the digital economy and its tools collectively and aggressively.
He asserted that this approach would amplify Africa’s ambition to create a robust and dynamic economic environment under the AfCFTA.
He said, “At the end of last month’s three-day Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) 2024, which I was happy to host at the Peduase Presidential Lodge in Aburi, Ghana, the participants signed up to the Peduase Compact, a document I am informed has been widely distributed here at this Summit.
“Allow me to focus on one very transformative and, at the same time, very doable item in the Compact, which if implemented can truly and meaningfully fast-track the inclusive realisation of the AfCFTA.
“This is the introduction of an Africa-wide mobile telephony interoperability,” President Akufo-Addo said.
“The participants at this year’s Africa Prosperity Dialogues were unanimous in agreeing that enabling interoperability to have a single pan-African payment system is the easiest, quickest, and most effective way to accelerate and deepen the single market project in Africa.
“It is a low-hanging fruit way of making AfCFTA immediately meaningful to tens of millions of people across Africa,” he further stated.