Her Excellency Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana, has warned that Africa’s economic future cannot be secured if the continent’s young people, women and small enterprises are excluded from trade, innovation and industrial growth.
The vice-president was speaking on Wednesday (4 February) at the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) 2026 at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), where she represented President John Dramani Mahama, who was unable to attend due to international engagements.
APD 2026 will run until Friday (6 February) and is convening under the theme “Empowering SMEs, Women and Youth in Africa’s Single Market: Innovate. Collaborate. Trade” as stakeholders come together to shape actionable policies, unlock bankable projects and advance inclusive prosperity under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Market access
Vice-President Opoku-Agyemang described an Africa-wide, single, integrated economic space as a work in progress, and stressed that realising its full potential will require deliberate inclusion and collaboration.
“A future that excludes young people, women and small enterprises is a crisis we cannot afford to sleepwalk into,” she said, urging the nations of Africa to move from dependence to self-reliance, from fragmentation to integration, and from exporting potential to building prosperity at home.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang highlighted the central role of SMEs, which generate over 80% of employment and contribute significantly to GDP.
She also observed that women make up nearly half of Africa’s workforce, while young people account for more than 60% of the population, driving innovation across sectors such as fintech and the creative industries.
She noted, however, that less than 20% of all SMEs across the continent engage in cross-border trade, and that many young people and women face barriers to finance, mobility and market access.
To address these challenges, Vice-President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang pointed to Ghana’s initiatives, including the 24-Hour Economy programme, designed to improve productivity by optimising infrastructure, finance and institutional efficiency, and the Big Push infrastructure development initiative, which aligns national priorities with ECOWAS and African Union objectives.
She called on governments across Africa to integrate borders, invest in skills and technology, strengthen institutions and implement policies which enable inclusive economic growth.
“Entrepreneurs in Accra, Kigali or elsewhere should see Africa not as a fragmented abstraction, but as one connected market full of opportunities,” she said.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang further reminded APD 2026 participants that Africa’s greatest asset is its people. She called on leaders to ensure that dialogues, initiatives and commitments translate into tangible action to build a prosperous and inclusive continent.
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