The Executive Chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network (APN), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has issued a call to move Pan-Africanism out of the "intellectual and political boardroom" and into the hands of the continent's youth and women.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews on Tuesday, January 27, the legal luminary and strategist argued that while the elite have long dominated the conversation through summits and communiqués, the actual movement of people and goods remains stifled by a lack of practical political will.

Reflecting on a conversation in Reykjavik, Iceland, Mr Otchere-Darko shared an anecdote about an African business mogul who owns a private plane but remains grounded by bureaucratic hurdles.

“He needs 33 visas to travel across the continent, and he hasn’t got the time to go to an embassy... he has his own plane, but he doesn’t have an African passport to travel freely across the continent,” he noted.

This, he argued, is the fundamental breakdown of the Pan-African dream: it exists as a concept for the elite but fails to serve even the most successful African entrepreneurs, let alone the average citizen.

Mr. Otchere-Darko observed that for decades, Pan-Africanism has been "confined to the space of the elite"—the intellectuals and the politicians. He noted that while leaders meet and sign agreements, the benefits haven't trickled down to the people who need them most.

“It hasn’t trickled down, been forced, been owned and been driven by the people of the continent. The young woman who graduated in Ghana, who is struggling to find a job but has skills... can’t unleash them because of the constraints she finds around herself,” he lamented.

APD 2026: Empowering the True Drivers of the Economy

The upcoming Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD 2026) seeks to bridge this gap.

This year’s theme—"Empowering Women and Youth in the Single Market: Innovate, Collaborate, Trade"—is a deliberate attempt to shift the focus to the actual drivers of the African economy.

Mr Otchere-Darko provided a data-driven justification for this shift:

• Employment: Roughly 80% of employment on the continent is within the informal or small-scale sector.
• Activity: 90% of economic activity is driven by SMEs.
• Ownership: About 33% of businesses are owned or run by women.

Referencing President Akufo-Addo’s famous assertion at the UN that "Africa is the future", the APN Chairman added a critical layer: The youth are the future of Africa.

“If Africa is the future and the youth make up the future, then how do we empower the youth so they can then drive the future?” he asked.

He argued that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) cannot succeed as a purely "political project."

It must be a "people’s project" where a graduate in Accra can innovate in Nairobi or trade in Lagos without the current "stifling constraints."