African leaders must work assiduously to ease movement across African nations to enhance knowledge sharing and speed up development, Prof Enoch Opoku-Antwi has said.

The Dean of Business Administration, Academic City University College, Haatso-Accra, was the keynote speaker at the second edition of the George Ayittey Memorial Lectures organised by the Africa Centre for Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment (ACEYE), Thursday, September 26, 2024.

“If you go to Europe, they are celebrating their borders,” Prof Opoku-Antwi said, speaking to the press.

He said this thinking back on times he had “sat in many classes in Europe where you’d see, out of about 30 students, five are coming from Belgium, five from The Netherlands, five from Germany, and they are all in that class because they can easily cross the border to school and go back”.

In the world of work, he added, he observed same.

“They can cross the border from Belgium to Amsterdam, work and go back. Some are from Germany, they work in Amsterdam and then they go back. They’ve opened their borders and are celebrating their borders,” Prof Opoku-Antwi said. “There is power in diversity, and working with different people.”

He bemoaned it was different in Africa, where, in West Africa, for instance, “we’ve closed our borders”.

“When I went to Togo recently, even crossing the border was a problem,” he buttressed. “They had to bring a driver to pick me from the Ghana side, you have to go through immigration, customs and national security, before you can cross the border.”

Apart from the constraints of movement, he said he experienced telecommunications challenges in Togo, finding out his service provider’s coverage did not reach Ghana’s eastern neighbour.

“I’ve interviewed a lot of Togolese and they tell me when they are coming here, it’s the same things they face. But if we can open our borders with Togo, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire, students can come here and learn,” Prof Opoku-Antwi recommended.

He noted the advantages of Ghana interacting with her three Francophone neightbours and vice versa.

He pointed out Academic City was championing this, teaching francophone students in English so they can take advantage of a wide range of opportunities in the world.

“How many of us speak French,” he challenged. “Even though Cote d’Ivoire is just here, the French language is strange to us.”

He denounced false narratives which have left many afraid to explore neighbouring African countries.

“That’s not how it’s supposed to be. Let’s open our borders, make sure that they all come here, come to school, and come to work. We can also go to Togo, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and work and then come back every evening,” Prof Opoku-Antwi advocated. “That is what Europe is doing. With one visa, the Schengen Visa, you can go to any of the European countries.”

“Let’s celebrate our borders like Europe is doing and we can exchange skills, a lot of ideas, and we’re all going to develop together,” he emphasised.