US-Africa Leaders’ Summit: APN Promotes ‘Kwahu’ For Single Market

Africa Prosperity Network (APN) has moved to promote a Summit, which will bring Africa’s political and business leaders together to work on the all-important single market project for the continent.

The organisers of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues, dubbed the “Kwahu Summit”, interacted with invited African leaders at the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit, which took place at the Walter Washington Convention Center Washington DC from Tuesday 13 to Thursday 15 December, 2022.

The maiden edition of the annual Kwahu Summit will take place in Ghana from Thursday 26 to Saturday 28 January, 2023. It is being organised by APN and its partners, which include the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana (the host nation of AfCFTA), the United Nations Development Programme (Africa), the Africa Prosperity Fund, the Ghana Investments Promotion Centre (GIPC), and the Africa-America Institute.

Additionally, the maiden summit will serve as a platform for the launch of an African Investment Promotion Agency Association which will seek to bring together all the Investment Promotion Agencies in Africa under one body to better facilitate regional coordination.

The CEO of GIPC   and a member of the organising team, Yofi Grant, said “It was an important platform for us, having all of the leaders in one space with a little over a month to the Kwahu Summit. It was important to reaffirm their commitment to the Africa Prosperity Dialogues and to focus the Africa transformation agenda internally.

“We are looking forward to this unique opportunity to have our business champions brainstorming with our heads of state and other decision makers on how to prioritise the single market project for our over 1.4 billion people.”

He said further that “Africa remains one if not the most important in terms of natural and human resources required to reboot the world back into appreciable growth”.

In her remarks, the director of APN Dr Nkiru Balonwu said “it was also significant for us to secure the strong interest of the African-American business leadership, as well. As President Akufo-Addo told the gathering of global African business leaders in Washington, Africa’s prosperity must deliberately involve the direct commitments and contributions from the African diaspora.”

Officials of APN who participated in the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit successfully made contact with all 49 African heads of state and governments who participated in the summit in the US, essentially to promote the Kwahu Summit and to firm up invitations extended to the heads of state ahead of the Summit.

As part of the promotional efforts by APN, its officials also participated in the Africa Soft

Power (ASP) conference, organised alongside the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit.

ASP is focused on harnessing the continent’s creative, cultural, and knowledge industries to propel itself forward, while championing the inclusion of African & Diaspora voices in global discourse. Ultimately, ASP seeks to showcase the continent and what its unique perspective can bring to the modern global economy at large.

The ASP conference held at the conference room of the National Geographic in Washington DC, brought together African business leaders in the US and across the African continent. APN’s message was presented in the strongest terms, urging participants to plan their participating forthwith.

The Kwahu Summit will be a platform where African leaders from diverse areas of national endeavour will gather each year to expedite the implementation of the agreed initiatives within the AfCFTA and shape the Africa Agenda for Action.

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 an Africa Beyond Aid.