A Chartered Engineer, Professor Douglas Boateng, has urged African leaders to prioritise interests of the continent over politics and nationalism.

He said Africa needed leaders who valued industries over elections as well as those who focused on long-term development rather than short-term gains to realise the potential of the AfCFTA.

Professor Boateng who made the call when he addressed the just ended Africa Prosperity Dialogue (APD) in Accra said realising the potential of the AfCFTA required sacrifice, cooperation and vision and not through words alone.

He said the African continent needed leaders who thought beyond the next election and planned for the next generation.

 AfCFTA

Professor Boateng who described himself as a celebrated thought leader, said Africans celebrated the AfCFTA as a game-changer, yet, Africans hesitated to take the decisive steps to make it work and transform the lives and livelihoods of the many and, more importantly, women and the African child.

“Yes, there is poverty in Africa but Africa is not poor. Africa is where it is because of a lack of boldness. We are not struggling because we lack resources. We are struggling because we have failed to harness what we have,” he stressed.

He said Africa sat on 60 per cent of the uncultivated arable land of the world but imported over $50 billion worth of food every year.

He said “We have some of the largest reserves of gold, manganese, bauxite, cobalt, and critical minerals, yet we ship them out raw and buy them back sometimes at ten times the price.”

He said Africa had the youngest population on earth but has failed to equip them with the skills and opportunities to thrive.

That, he said, was not a tragedy of circumstance but a tragedy of choices and cautioned that if Africans did not change course or take responsibility, then they must accept a brutal reality.

Speaking to the topic; “Africa’s unfinished business; The inconvenient truth about our chains, our choices and our future,” he said the gathering must not be the usual  but one that would come with actions and real progress even after the debates, speeches and analysis.

He said Africa was at a crossroad and could either break the chains that binded its people or continue polishing them, mistaking motion for progress.

He said Africans could build bridges toward prosperity or keep digging the grave of underdevelopment with their own hands.

Trade

He pointed out that intra-African trade remained at just 15 per cent while it was 68 per cent in Europe.

In Asia, Professor Boateng said it was 58 per cent and said over 600 million Africans still lacked access to reliable electricity, making industrialisation nearly impossible.

He said the situation in Africa was a sad reality that a bold leadership could reverse.

While describing the ADP as a moment of reckoning, Professor Boateng said Africans could either remain comfortable in their relative poverty or rise or take their place among the great economic powers.

“If goods and people cannot move efficiently across borders, we will never unlock the potential of AfCFTA, if infrastructure remains weak, costs will remain high, and competitiveness will remain a dream,” he emphasised.

Professor said the lack of an efficient transport network was one of the most significant obstacles on the continent.

He said transport costs in Africa were among the highest in the world indicating that if  Africa was serious about industrialisation and AFCTFA it must invest in modern railways.

That, he explained, was because no country had ever achieved sustained economic growth without an efficient rail system.