Award-winning Ghanaian rapper and entrepreneur Michael Owusu Addo popularly known as Sarkodie has called on African leaders to accelerate efforts toward continental economic integration, throwing his support behind the Make Africa Borderless Now! Movement and its 10-million-signature petition.
In a statement backing the campaign, Sarkodie said Africa’s greatest challenge is not a lack of talent, ideas or ambition, but limited access to markets, capital and opportunities caused by restrictive borders and fragmented systems.
“I stand before you today not only as an artist, but as an African who believes that this generation has a responsibility to finish the work that history left incomplete,” he said.
The musician noted that many of Africa’s borders were drawn without the involvement of Africans, yet continue to determine who can trade, travel and grow across the continent. According to him, the movement is not a protest but a call to action grounded in economic sense, dignity and Africa’s self-belief.
Sarkodie highlighted the creative industry as an example of Africa’s natural borderlessness, observing that music and art travel freely across the continent even when people, goods and services face regulatory barriers.
“The African people are already borderless. Our system just needs to catch up,” he said.
He argued that the cost of Africa’s fragmented systems is borne largely by small and medium-sized enterprises, women entrepreneurs and young innovators who struggle to scale their businesses beyond national borders due to regulatory hurdles, delays and high costs.
According to Sarkodie, a borderless Africa is not about erasing national identities but about unlocking economic value, turning innovation into industry and creativity into commerce. He said freer movement of goods, services, capital and people would expand economies, create jobs and enhance Africa’s global competitiveness.
The rapper stressed that discussions about a single African market would remain incomplete if mobility and trade barriers persist, adding that future generations cannot be inspired if opportunities end at national borders.
“This generation has a choice,” he said. “We can manage fragmentation or we can build integration. We can protect barriers or we can unlock markets.”
Sarkodie concluded by urging Africans to support the Make Africa Borderless Now! Movement, calling for freer movement, trade and prosperity across the continent.
“Let Africans move. Let Africans trade. Let Africans thrive,” he said.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
