Hope and enthusiasm best describe the mood as delegates arrive at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the Borderless Africa Forum and Policy Dialogues.
The forum is held in spaces where core decisions about Africa and its people are made. And it carries a great symbol of unity, resilience and forward-looking attitude.
The indaba brings together journalists, filmmakers, influencers, content creators and others from the breadth and width of the African continent to talk about the possibility of Africa’s reconnection— and forget the partitions!
Here, the African story is being re-written. The event coincides with the anniversary of the Berlin Conference— where Africa was ‘split’, but without African representation or voice.
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“Through Borderless Africa, we aim to rewrite that narrative by amplifying unity, mobility, and shared progress,” says Anne Osamba, Campaign and Advocacy Lead at African Rising— organisers of the event.
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The conversation here rides the AU’s Agenda 2063 and its flagship initiative, the African Passport and Free Movement of People— which was carefully crafted to ensure freedom for people of the continent to travel across and also ease processes in the movement of goods.
It is not just an idea of cultural integration and synergies. The concept holds the prowess to shape the trajectory of Africa’s economies so that everything can be done in the best interest of its people.
Africa is, collectively, fast becoming a giant in its own right and a force to be reckoned with on matters of trade, except that, in most instances, countries have been seen, or maybe structurally pushed, to operate in isolated spaces.
With integration, the continent is poised to dominate the list of the world’s fastest growing economies, says Ambassador Fred Ngoga, Senior Adviser for International Partnerships at the AU Commission, in his keynote speech.
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“Integration is more than policy; it is about people experiencing freedom across their own continent. Influencers have the power to make this real for millions of Africans,” he says.
Under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)—the continent’s single biggest trading bloc and one of the AU flagship projects for implementation of its ‘Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want,’—all the 55 member states are brought together in an intra-African continental free trade area.
It would create a market of more than 1.3 billion people and a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of up to $3.4 trillion.
The AfCFTA speaks directly to the borderless Africa concept. If, or when, fully implemented, the AfCFTA could leverage intra-African trade and increase trade among member states by up to 110 percent.
In addition, the AfCFTA could lift up to 30 million people out of extreme poverty and up to 68 million people out of moderate poverty.
“By eliminating trade barriers to trade across Africa, the impact of the AfCFTA is expected to be significant and transformative,” reads a recent AUDA-Nepad annual report.
The pact ensures the creation of decent jobs, inclusive growth and sustainable development.
Simply put, intra-trade is working in, and for, Africa but more work needs to be done, especially in scrapping off barriers to trade and ensuring the free movement of people.
The continent’s decades of heavy-reliance on debt and aid from foreign sources is gradually and steadily being overwritten.
Strides are being made on enhancing private sector-led production and nations’ integration for ease of doing business. Footprints of the continent’s products and services are equally traced beyond, hence the renewed call for visa-free travel across Africa and the acceleration of the African Union’s Free Movement Protocol.
From the conversations, it appears a forgone conclusion that the continent is poised to achieve collective prosperity.
Hardi Yakubu, Coordinator of Africans Rising Movement, challenged the continent to move beyond historic grievances: ‘We must begin to localise the borderless campaign.”
Presented to Robert Afriyie, Ghana’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union Commission, a declaration is made by the delegates: ‘We are the Borderless Africa’.
