Support Africa to deal with poverty, deprivation  …President appeals to world leaders

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says a well-developed and prosperous Africa will be good not for only Africans but for the entire global community.

He has therefore, called on leaders of the developed world to focus their attention on support­ing the continent in its develop­ment agenda in order to enable it deal with the doldrums of poverty and deprivation it found itself.

Speaking at the annual Africa Day event in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo said the problems that confronted the world were more likely to be resolved quickly when all were prosperous.

President Akufo-Addo said the age-long practice of Africa continued dependence on the production and export of raw materials, without any meaningful value-addition processes must give way to a new form of economy dependent on industrialisation.

“After sixty odd years, it is obvious that the aid path will not take Africa to where she has to be. Africa does not want to be a scar on anybody’s conscience. She does not want to be pitied,” the President said.

Adding, she does not want to be either a pawn or a victim. Africa no longer wants to be the default place to go to find the footage to illustrate famine stories. We no longer want to offer the justification for those who want to be rude and abusive about Africa and her peoples.

President, Akufo-Addo ex­plained that countries that had made rapid economic strides were the ones that prioritised investment in education and skills training, and encouraged high lev­els of investment in entrepreneur development in Africa.

In addition, he said the key catalysts to accelerate economic growth, is to ensure food security, create jobs, empower the youth, spur the growth of more entre­preneurial economies in Africa was the structural transformation of African economies by shifting it from largely depending on the production and export of raw materials to value-added, indus­trial ones, and stimulate agricul­tural productivity.

“I am here today to call for increased investment and trade between our two continents. Trade relations between us have evolved through history, and it is clear that a new paradigm has to be defined, which will be depen­dent on the structural trans­formation of the African and Ghanaian economies from raw material producing and exporting economies to value-adding in­dustrialising economies,” he told the gathering.

President Akufo-Addo stressed that “once this is done it will enable the countries on the continent, including Ghana to trade at the high end of the global value chain, dealing in products we make and grow. Out of this, a robust trading system between Europe and Africa, Austria and Ghana will be created which will generate mutual prosperity for the peoples of the two continents and countries.”

BY TIMES REPORTER

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