President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to lobby African leaders in pursuit of scaling up mobile money interoperability for economic growth as the African Union (AU) holds its Sixth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting on Sunday, July 21.

A host of Heads of State and other State officials across the continent are gathering in Accra, Ghana’s capital, for the event, designed to deepen the Union’s integration agenda.

The aim is to harmonise the AU policies and that of the regional economic communities.

Ghana is currently making inroads with the introduction of mobile interoperability into the financial space, facilitating the transaction of funds from a phone to a bank account and vice-versa.

The financial digitalisation system, which also allows direct and seamless transfer of funds from one mobile money wallet to another across networks, is the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.

It has significantly lowered the cost on transactions, while increasing financial service reach to engender financial inclusion, says the authorities.

“Almost half of Africans have a SIM card, 28 per cent are accessing the internet, and a whooping US$832 billion worth of mobile money transactions was recorded in sub-Saharan Africa in 2022 alone,” President Nana Akufo-Addo noted while addressing the recent Africa Prosperity Dialogue (APD).

The President is urging his colleague Heads of State to support the implementation of an African-wide mobile telephony interoperability system, arguing that this would boost the continent’s efforts at building the world’s largest market via the implementation of the African Continent Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agenda.      

A concept note copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), ahead of the Sixth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting, indicated that President Nana Akufo-Addo’s address would also give a report on the establishment of AU Financial Institutions (AUFIs).

The creation of AUFIs is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063, aiming at accelerating integration and socio-economic development of the continent.

The agreed timeframes in the first ten-year plan of the Agenda were for the African Investment Bank and Pan-African Stock Exchange to be established by 2016, the African Monetary Fund by 2018, and the African Central Bank and Single African Currency by 2034.

As the Champion of AU’s Financial Institutions, President Nana Akufo-Addo believes achieving the continent’s objectives of financial independence ought to be at the centre of the agenda for continental integration.

Over the years, the continent has adopted a treaty and several legal instruments to that effect, but the AU Champion on Financial Institutions insists more needs to be done to unleash the economic potential of Africa.

Aside from Ghana’s President, the AU Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the AU Chairperson, Mohamed Cheikh El Ghazouani, and other prominent personalities are billed to address the AU Meeting.

Nigerian President Ahmed Tinubu, in his capacity as the Chairman of the West African regional economic bloc, ECOWAS, will address the gathering on the status of regional integration against the backdrop of the deteriorating democracy and security in the area.

He will also present the 2024 Report on the State of the Community, focusing on peace, governance, economic integration, humanitarian and social development, as well as agriculture, mines and energy.  

The programme will generally discuss the status of regional integration by the varied economic blocs within the continent, key continental initiatives of the African Development Bank, status of continental integration, and establishing mechanisms for cooperation on each sector.

The Sixth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting is being convened under the AU.