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President John Dramani Mahama has called on African leaders to commit to decisive action to boost the continent's prosperity, saying, it is time for Africa to interlock its sovereign prosperity spheres to transform the continent.
He stressed that Africa needed to take control of its economic destiny and urgently attend to its “deal-making, health, critical mineral supply chains, repatriation of African sovereign foreign exchange reserves, and digital skills passports.”
Speaking at the Accra Reset, a side event at the high-level meeting during the 39th AU Summit last Saturday, President Mahama said it was time for implementation as the continent leaders had reflected enough over the years.
The President indicated that the Accra Reset provided a framework through which Africa and its partners aligned finance, health, trade, skills and technology into a single direction of travel needed to transform the continent.
He added that the continent’s frustrations had given way to determination and sparking breakthrough thinking that would change the calculus of international relations forever.
President Mahama urged committed and willing countries to implement the Accra Reset agenda and not wait for consensus from all countries, emphasising that the Accra Reset Summit is not a conclusion, but marks the beginning of a more disciplined phase in which ideas must prove themselves through delivery.
He said, for example, for too long, the African health systems had been seen as a drain on countries’ budgets, however, through the Accra Reset, every Finance Minister now understood that health was a foundation of productivity and stability.
“Our role raises a very important issue. We come up with the decisions, we agree, and we do the frameworks.
What is missing is urgent implementation. We take time, and we behave like time is waiting for us.
“Accra Reset is a good idea, but let's implement urgently.
If parts of the continent are not ready, let's have a coalition of the willing who would move this as fast as possible and let all the others follow and join,” he said.
President Mahama implored African leaders to reject the false choice of choosing between ambition and realism, saying “ambition only becomes realistic when institutions align, when partners listen and execution becomes a shared responsibility”.
President Mahama asserted that Africans must strive to develop, stressing that the continent's growth would contribute positively to worldwide development and not threaten it.
“Africa's prosperity is not a threat to anybody in this world. Africa's prosperity will constantly be a global prosperityIt will be positive for this world and not a threat,” he said.
The President said a high-level panel on reforming global health architecture had been set to lead the needed reforms for Africa’s reforms, stressing that reforms would be grounded in knowledge of past failures, while animated by future promise.
On negotiating power, he added that technical work had begun on a sovereign negotiator certification programme to cultivate a generation of dealmakers who could navigate technology agreements, mineral contracts and complex financing with confidence.
Also, on trade and mobility, he said, through the Africa Continental Free Trade Act (AfCFTA) and digital platforms, the League of Free Movement was taking on a new meaning.
“Our global digital skills passport will ensure that the qualifications of young Africans are recognised across platforms and across the world.
On global partnerships, the new Bandung spirit is gaining expression.
“Exchanges with South Korea, Singapore, India and Indonesia are opening pathways for technological learning and digital trade. AI is becoming embedded in our industrial planning and governance systems,” he added.
