Private legal practitioner Ace Anan Ankomah has urged African governments to rethink the way borders are managed on the continent, calling for their dismantling rather than rigid policing to boost intra-African trade and accelerate development.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2026 Africa Prosperity Dialogues, Mr Ankomah argued that Africa’s fragmented borders continue to undermine economic integration, despite the continent’s abundant natural resources and market potential.
He described Africa’s current approach to border control as paradoxical, noting that while African countries impose strict barriers on one another, external actors often gain easy access to extract the continent’s wealth.
“This is not sovereignty,” he said. “It is fragmentation masquerading as independence.”
Tracing the roots of Africa’s divisions to the 1884 – 85 Berlin Conference, Mr Ankomah said colonial-era boundaries had left behind small, disconnected economies, divided markets and persistent insecurity, even as Africa remained rich in natural resources.
Decades after independence, he said, the legacy of those artificial borders continues to manifest in poverty, conflict and underdevelopment, despite repeated commitments to regional integration.
Mr Ankomah illustrated the problem with a personal experience of travelling from Accra to Lomé, a journey of about three hours, which required the inspection of numerous documents, including passports, insurance, health cards and vehicle permits.
He described the situation as inconsistent with the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment, which has been in existence for more than 50 years.
“These barriers exist even though we have already agreed to free movement,” he noted, arguing that the persistence of such obstacles reflects weak political will rather than legal constraints.
Mr Ankomah therefore called for decisive action to remove artificial borders and administrative barriers, saying Africa’s prosperity depended on seamless movement of people, goods and capital across the continent.
“Let us tear down these borders, boundaries and barriers to unlock Africa’s prosperity,” he said.
Beyond border reforms, Mr Ankomah urged African leaders to pursue a development model anchored in self-reliance, industrialisation and the effective use of local capabilities.
He called for a shift from superstition to science, and from raw material exports to value-added production that creates jobs and wealth within Africa.
“We do not need to be at someone else’s table. We do not need to be on someone else’s menu. We can and must build our own table. We can and must write our own menu,” he stated.
Mr Ankomah warned that Africa risked missing the Fourth Industrial Revolution driven by artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced manufacturing — while the Fifth Industrial Revolution, focused on sustainability and human-centred innovation, was already emerging.
He expressed optimism, however, that technology offered Africa a chance to leapfrog historical delays if countries embraced homegrown solutions rather than adopting ideas designed for different contexts.
He noted that many practical solutions to Africa’s development challenges already existed within universities, developed by young innovators but left unused in academic archives.
To change this, Mr Ankomah called on governments to establish structured innovation incubators across tertiary institutions to connect research with industry, capital and policy support.
“African governments must act as facilitators,” he said, urging authorities to protect intellectual property, patent inventions and transform research outputs into viable enterprises.
With a population of about 1.6 billion, he said Africa could no longer afford delayed action, stressing the urgency of implementing locally generated solutions to end poverty on the continent.
“It must never be said that every major civilisation conquered poverty, except Africa,” he added.
