Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu, has asserted that in order for informal economies to be successfully incorporated into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework, governments need to ensure transparency, fairness, and adherence to the rule of law in their policies and practices.
Speaking at the 2024 visiting scholar program at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, and at the University of South, Sewanee, Tennessee in the United States of America, the Human Rights lawyer made a presentation titled “The New Paradigm of Integration of Africa.”
This presentation was inspired by his doctoral thesis in the area of international economic law, with an emphasis on regional integration laws.
He poked about the need for Africa to take a step back to harmonize its regional integration efforts as an aid to the AfCFTA Agreement to achieve economic integration and discussed the new conceptual framework for integration in Africa that he has developed.
“Under this conceptual framework, the regional economic communities recognized by the AU must be harmonized under the AFCFTA, and the AFCFTA must have a supranational status. Informal economies must be incorporated under the AfCFTA and there must be political accountability and commitment to ensure this model succeeds for Africa to integrate economically,” he said.
Mr Sosu warned Africa against potential economic globalization by China and the urgent need for African leaders to embrace this new AFCFTA conceptual model to accelerate Africa’s economic integration and transformation.
He also delivered lectures in several classes on the topic “The nexus between Servant Leadership, Good Governance, and Development.”
The lectures discussed different leadership models and focused on servant leadership as the best model to guarantee good governance principles such as accountability, openness, and independence of state institutions and thereby propel inclusive development where everyone, regardless of their backgrounds, can fully achieve their individual potential.
The Madina legislator also spent time with students and faculty members to interact and discuss Ghana as the leading democracy in Africa. This gave him the opportunity to sell Ghana to most students who have signed up to study abroad in Ghana this fall and in the fall of 2025.
He also had opportunities to discuss the possibilities for Ghanaian students, particularly those from the Madina Constituency, to take advantage of the exchange programs to study at the two colleges.