NewzFounder and Executive Chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network, Gabby Otchere-Darko, has urged African leaders to prioritise the removal of visa restrictions among African countries to expand economic opportunities and create more jobs. He said Africa’s 55 economies are too small and fragmented to generate the scale of opportunities needed, particularly for the continent’s young population. “It has to be done because our economies are too small to remain fragmented and to deliver the jobs and opportunities that we need.
Mr Otchere-Darko said the time has come for African countries to move beyond decades of discussions on free movement, noting that the issue has been on the continent’s agenda since 1963. He pointed to the experience of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), where citizens of member states enjoy relatively free movement, as evidence that concerns about removing restrictions can be managed. “Those of us in West Africa, we are familiar with free movement because within ECOWAS, we have free movement, and we’ve seen that it has contributed positively to transactions, facilitating transactions within our region,” he said.
According to him, while some checks remain necessary, the experience of West Africa has shown “that the fears about free movement is not borne out by the practice, as we’ve seen in West Africa.” Mr Otchere-Darko also criticised the continued fragmentation of African economies along boundaries largely inherited from colonial rule. He said African countries should instead seek to expand economic activity across those borders to create more jobs and opportunities for their people. “Fifty-five economies, still structured within, by and large, the boundaries that were set by colonialism,” he said.
speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse, he said visa application processes can take days, meaning businesspeople may miss meetings and other opportunities that require them to travel at short notice. Because to apply for a visa itself is a process, and it can take days. It also means that you miss opportunities,” he said.
Mr Otchere-Darko said the restrictions affect more than businesspeople, pointing to students and people travelling to attend sporting events and concerts. He explained that although such events may be recreational for attendees, they also represent business opportunities for those organising them. According to him, Africa’s ambition to establish a single market through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) cannot be fully achieved without the free movement of people.
“The focus now is how to get businesses moving. But you can’t have businesses moving if you don’t have free movement of people,” he said. He also called for greater attention to movement within the digital economy, which he described as one of the biggest economies on the continent.
Summary from source