By Rachel Quartey & Rukayatu Musah
Ghana’s Vice President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has called for accountability and real results in Africa’s push for economic integration, as the 2026 Africa Trade Summit closed in Accra. President of São Tomé and Príncipe, Carlos Vila Nova, was also present, lending high-level support to the discussions.
The summit reached its climax on Thursday with the graduation of the 2025 cohort of the African Trade Chamber’s Future Trade Leaders Fellowship and the Africa Trade Awards Gala.
The Fellowship celebrated a new generation of African trade professionals trained to deepen regional integration, strengthen value chains, and advance intra-African trade under the AfCFTA framework.
The Awards Gala recognized individuals and institutions for outstanding contributions to trade, industrialization, and economic transformation, including a special segment honoring legacy achievements.
At the closing ceremony, Vice President Opoku-Agyemang emphasized that vision alone is no longer enough to sustain Africa’s trade momentum.
“When our vision is assessed in the future, it will be judged by whether infrastructure projects were completed within a reasonable time and cost, and whether firms were able to scale or remain competitive,” she said.
She outlined five practical priorities for enduring continental reform:
1. Intra-African Trade: Deepening the exchange of goods and services between neighboring nations.
2. Industrial Policy: Supporting priority sectors, building specialized skills, and embracing sustainable production methods.
3. Infrastructure and Connectivity: Strengthening physical and digital links to bridge market gaps.
4. Innovation and Technology: Leveraging new tools to drive efficiency and global competitiveness.
5. Institutional Capacity and Governance: The foundational anchor essential for lasting economic reform.
“Maintaining momentum requires deliberate, interconnected investments. Ghana is committed to playing her part in this continental transformation,” Prof. Opoku-Agyemang added. “We urge other member states to match this commitment with action, moving Africa from a consumer of global goods to a competitive manufacturing hub.”
President Carlos Vila Nova stressed that Africa’s industrial future depends not just on vision but on how infrastructure is designed, managed, and sustained.
“Africa’s industrial future will not be determined by vision alone but by whether we are prepared to change how we design, govern, and sustain the infrastructure on which that future depends. Across our continent, ports stand as symbols of progress. Railways are launched with pride.
Power plants are commissioned with ceremony, and yet factories still struggle to compete. Farmers still lose value between production and market, and traders still wait at borders longer than they move on highways,” he said.
“The courage required of us now is not only to build but to stop building what does not serve our future. The regional corridors must be treated as economic instruments, not national profits.
Institutions such as the African Trade Chamber must be strengthened, resourced, and empowered to translate vision into practical delivery. Time has now become Africa’s most expensive infrastructure deficit.
Every year of delay compounds lost competitiveness, lost employment, and lost confidence,” he added.
The Africa Trade Summit 2026, themed “Financing Industrialization and Market Integration,” concluded after two days of high-level dialogue focused on turning policy into measurable industrial outcomes, reaffirming the continent’s drive toward a more integrated, industrialized, and competitive Africa.
