By Eugene Nyarko Jnr.
Accra, Feb. 25, 2026 — The Africa Prosperity Network (APN), organisers of the annual Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD), has released a 12-point Action Compact calling for the urgent implementation of Africa’s long-standing integration commitments, including visa-free travel across the continent.
The APD 2026 Action Compact, described as a “People’s Compact,” is the outcome of the three-day Africa Prosperity Dialogues held from February 4–6, 2026, at the Accra International Conference Centre. It captures the collective position of 6,530 participants who travelled to Accra from 51 African countries and 40 others.
Central to the Compact is a demand for visa-free travel for Africans across all member states of the African Union (AU). It also calls for seamless cross-border trade, including enabling Africans to buy and sell goods and services across borders using mobile money wallets — a practical measure small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) say would significantly boost intra-African trade.
Held under the theme, “Empowering SMEs, Women and Youth in Africa’s Single Market: Innovate. Collaborate. Trade,” the dialogues featured high-level Presidential and Business Leaders sessions, plenary discussions, roundtables, panel engagements, and 12 executive breakfast meetings tailored to address the concerns of SMEs, women and youth entrepreneurs.
Delegates stressed that empowering these groups would not require new declarations from the AU, but rather the full implementation of existing treaties and protocols. They cited the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community, the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, and the AfCFTA Protocols on Digital Trade and on Women and Youth in Trade as instruments awaiting execution.
Although the Free Movement Protocol was adopted in 2018, participants noted that only four member states have ratified it, far below the 15 required for it to enter into force. Without free movement, they argued, businesses cannot scale across borders and the promise of a single African market of 1.5 billion people remains constrained.
With youth unemployment identified as the most pressing challenge facing governments across the continent, delegates concluded that economic integration is not optional but essential. They described integration as the only viable path to generating the 15 to 20 million jobs Africa must create annually, warning that continued fragmentation is not only inefficient but economically self-defeating for individual states and the continent as a whole.
The Compact anchors the “Make Africa Borderless Now!” campaign — an APD 2026 initiative that seeks to mobilise 10 million signatures through a continent-wide petition. The petition is expected to be presented to the AU Assembly in February 2027 with a single demand: ratify and implement existing agreements without delay.
“This Compact is the collective voice of Africa’s private sector, women and youth,” said Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the Advisory Council of APN and architect of “The Africa We Want.”
“The tools for prosperity already exist. The time for implementation is now,” added the former Chairperson of the AU Commission who oversaw the launch of Agenda 2063 in 2013.
