Vice President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has announced plans for Ghana to collaborate with Rwanda, Zambia, and other partners to pilot a continental digital trade corridor, to accelerate cross-border payments, digital identity integration, and regulatory alignment across Africa.
Speaking at the 3i Africa Summit 2026 in Accra, the Vice President said the initiative will focus on “mobile money interoperability,” “mutual recognition of digital identity,” and “harmonised electronic invoicing,” positioning it as a practical step toward reducing friction in intra-African trade.
She noted that despite ongoing integration efforts, many transactions within Africa are still routed through “financial systems outside the continent” and denominated in third-party currencies, a situation that “adds costs and delays” while weakening the concept of a single market. Platforms such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), she said, are beginning to address these inefficiencies.
Opoku-Agyemang emphasised that Africa’s integration agenda must move beyond rhetoric to implementation, stressing that a “gateway” economy like Ghana must function as “a system” where transactions are efficient, businesses connect seamlessly, and markets operate with certainty.
She highlighted four priority pillars necessary to achieve digital integration at scale: payments, identity, regulation, and infrastructure. On payments, she pointed to the African Union’s Digital Trade Protocol as a framework to reduce friction through “cross-border electronic processes” and system interoperability, to enable businesses to transact “directly, efficiently, and at a reasonable cost.”
On identity, she warned that the absence of verifiable digital identification continues to exclude millions from formal systems, noting that trust in digital economies begins with “verifiable identity.” She called for interoperable systems to expand participation across borders.
Addressing regulation, the Vice President said integration does not require uniform laws but demands “compatibility,” cautioning that fragmented regimes increase business costs and discourage innovation. She advocated for “regulatory sandboxes,” shared standards, and closer coordination among jurisdictions to support seamless market operations.
She also highlighted infrastructure gaps, citing limited broadband access, affordability challenges, and Africa’s relatively small share of global data centre capacity. This, she noted, has implications for both performance and “digital sovereignty,” particularly when data is stored and processed on the continent.
Opoku-Agyemang further positioned digital integration as central to Africa’s economic independence, referencing Kwame Nkrumah’s vision and noting that sovereignty today depends on “digital integration” where value is “created, exchanged and controlled.”
She added that Africa’s demographic advantage and accelerating technology adoption present an opportunity to shape the next phase of global digital growth, particularly in sectors such as agriculture, health, education, and public services.
The Vice President concluded that Africa’s ability to compete globally will depend on systems that “work consistently across borders” and at scale, stressing that the continent must decide whether to operate on “its own terms” or within externally defined frameworks.
