According to him, Africa loses billions from intra-regional trading in foreign currency, and he believes adopting an African Union coin to fund Africa’s Agenda 2063 will revolutionise the continent’s trading activities.
Speaking virtually at the Africa Digital Forum (ADF), Accra edition, on the theme “The Digital Challenge, Africa’s Opportunity under AfCFTA”, he said “one forward-looking proposal is to take advantage of advances in cryptocurrencies and blockchain and issue [the] African Union coin to fund Africa’s Agenda 2063, and we will trade only in African Union coin among ourselves.”
Agenda 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming the continent into the global powerhouse of the future.
It is the continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance.
Prof. Quaynor also stated that a good, stable and secure internet is a pre-condition for a successful AfCFTA.
“AfCFTA will do well when there are lots of companies and government websites engaged in online commerce. These commerce and government websites require domain names, web hosting, e-commerce and payment tools,” he said.
The Dean of the University of Ghana Business School, Prof. Justice Bawole, speaking at the same event, bemoaned the mismatch when it comes to digital skills, arguing that there is a lot of mismatch as educational institutions are constrained in their ability to give digital skills.
According to him, digital skills are critical to ensure the “young ones are included and are able to take over from us”. He added that digital skills are not organic—as in they do not grow by themselves unless concerted efforts are made, through deliberate policy and environmental investment, to create them.
