Ghana’s Minority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has issued a strong call to the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) to back its Model Law on Factory with practical strategies that will support Africa’s industrial transformation and economic integration.
Addressing fellow lawmakers at the recent sitting, the Nsawam-Adoagyiri MP described the discussion around the Model Law as a pivotal moment in Africa’s development narrative, but warned that it must not stop at rhetoric.
“So for PAP to be talking about Model Law on factory, my day is made, and I feel proud as a son of the soil,” he stated.
“Kwame Nkrumah, Robert Mugabe, Julius Nyerere, all of them will be shaking in their graves that the very vision they stood for is now being voiced on a continental platform.”
However, Annoh-Dompreh stressed that failing to integrate the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) into the legal framework would be a significant oversight.
“Ghana is proud to host the AfCFTA Secretariat,” he said. “We cannot talk about the Model Law on factories without referencing the relevance and importance of the continental free trade area. It is the second largest free trade agreement after the WTO.”
Drawing lessons from history, he cautioned against repeating past mistakes where good policies were disconnected from execution.
“We’ve read about the Marshall Plan and how the World Bank and IMF helped Europe after its collapse. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” he said.
“The question is: what are we modelling this law on? Are there global best practices we can adopt, market sourcing, branding, support for banks and SMEs? These are core principles we must embed.”
While recognising the law’s symbolic value, the MP emphasized the need for tangible outcomes. “Yes, this model law will be persuasive and not binding. That makes it even more important for us to champion its adoption by member states. We must not allow this to be another policy that gathers dust on the shelf.”
He concluded by urging the Parliament to ensure the law becomes a living tool that inspires industrial action across the continent.
