Young Ghanaian businessman Andrew Takyi-Appiah has suggested a greater reliance on technology to promote trade and advance the continent.
He claimed that the fulfilment of the genuine Pan-African dream through a borderless present that echoed the once boundless past was the next stage for Africa.
We now have the ability to move, trade, and grow, said Mr. Takyi-Appiah, the founder and CEO of Zeepay, to the Daily Graphic. "Our continent was interrupted and arrested in development, but the power to move, trade, and develop is now in our own hands," he said.
The capacity to use the technology that was readily available, he said, adding that "it allows the world to come to us long before we reach them, even while the continent still battled poverty,"
The technology entrepreneur said that the spread of mobile payments across Africa had achieved this goal as well as produced a whole generation of budding young entrepreneurs who were eager and ready for their small enterprises to take the next step.
Mr. Takyi-Appiah stated that although he was a businessman, he also had an aim loftier than profits when laying out the backdrop for why Africa must use technology to push the boundaries of commerce and prosperity.
"I want to increase trans-African trade and make entrepreneurship an engine in the economic development of our continent," said the under-50-year-old entrepreneur who had spent the previous nine years developing Zeepay and expanding it into 33 markets, including 25 in Africa.
Context
Around 600 million mobile money accounts were active as of this year, and $600 billion worth of transactions had been made.
The figures translate into enormous economic prospects with a multiplying impact that goes beyond just money and serves as a foundation for a significant change in society.
Large-scale international trade is occurring all throughout Africa, mostly through small- to medium-sized firms, and is made feasible by electronic payment methods.
The World Economic Forum said in 2023 that the three biggest obstacles small company owners in sub-Saharan Africa now face are the inability to raise capital, a lack of workers with adequate digital skills, and a challenging regulatory environment.
Using the research as support, Mr. Takyi-Appiah said that given the enormous potential being strangled by those difficulties, as a continent and as a country, they have to be given primary attention.
"The real challenge now is how to harvest and capitalise on that, how to turn Africa into the innovation and startup hub it should and could be," he maintained.
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