The Reverend Justice Akrofi, President of the Bible Society of Ghana (BSG) has called on African leaders to turn to the Bible as a source of strength and wisdom as they strived to find solutions to the continent's problems.
He said "The Bible has been a transformer and a unifying force bringing people of different races, colour, profession among other things together in mutual respect", a condition necessary for overall development of the continent.
He said about 300,000 books are printed yearly, but all of them only inform, adding that "it is only the Bible that transforms".
The Reverend Akrofi, who is also the Archbishop of the West Africa Province of the Anglican Church, said this when he opened a four-day conference organized by the African Bible Society in Accra on Wednesday to discuss contemporary religious, political and economic issues and to see how best to address them.
The conference, which is hosted by the BSG, is being attended by over 30 church leaders drawn from 12 African countries including Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Madagascar, Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana.
The Reverend Akrofi said Africa was blessed by God with vast human and natural resources, rich culture, history, and the potential to impact the world in many ways.
He said despite all the opportunities, the lack of unity had deprived Africa of making any meaningful impact in addressing her own needs and the needs of humanity as a whole.
He said this underscored his call on the leaders of the continent to make the Bible their reference point because its messages centered on unity and brotherliness which ought to be treasured, as the lack of those virtues bred factionalism, strife, feud and retarded the progress of human society.
"Our fellowship has transcended denominations, the Bible and the Christian faith has promoted tolerance for peoples of other faiths as all humanity derives its existence from the one God", he said.
The Reverend Akrofi said Africa had become the centre of Christianity in terms of the number of Christians, adding that it was good news because Christians were change agents. He urged them to change the status quo which had been the bane of the continent's progress.
He challenged Christians and Christian leaders to practicalise Christianity to impact the lives of peoples and nations, and the whole humanity adding this was necessary and compelling especially at a time when many of the people were becoming Christians.
Mr David Hammond, Africa Area Secretary of the Africa Bible Society, said the society was working to ensure that the Bible saturated the entire continent.
Mr Hammond said this would help to eliminate corruption, human rights abuses, wars and other negative practices that had become synonymous with the continent would be reduced if not completely stopped.