Africa must scrap visa restrictions to unlock jobs – Gabby Otchere-Darko

Gabby Otchere-Darko, the founder and executive chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network, has called on African leaders to make the removal of visa restrictions between African countries a top priority. He asserts that doing so would unlock significant economic opportunities and job creation across the continent. Otchere-Darko argues that Africa's 55 economies are still too small and fragmented individually to generate the scale of opportunities necessary, particularly for the continent's burgeoning young population.

He emphasizes that, "It has to be done because our economies are too small to remain fragmented and to deliver the jobs and opportunities that we need. We're too small,".

The African continent has been discussing free movement of people since 1963, but nothing has been done to implement these ideas. Otchere-Darko urges African nations to move beyond discussions and into action. To support his point, he refers to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as evidence that fears regarding free movement are unfounded.

He states, "Those of us in West Africa, we are familiar with free movement because within ECOWAS, we have free movement, and we've seen that it has contributed positively to transactions, facilitating transactions within our region."

Despite the need for some level of checks, Otchere-Darko argues that West Africa's experience shows that fears about free movement are not borne out by practice. He criticizes the continued fragmentation of African economies along colonial-era borders, urging countries to expand economic activity beyond these artificial boundaries. He notes, "Fifty-five economies, still structured within, by and large, the boundaries that were set by colonialism."