Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, has called on other African leaders to join President Akufo Addo’s campaign to build a country beyond aid.
He said all the countries within the continent must leverage their natural resources to ensure growth and development, rather than expect hand-outs from foreign donors.
Dr. Bawumia made the call when the President of the Nigerian Senate, Abubakar Bukalo Saraki, paid a courtesy call on him over the weekend.
“We all have quite a significant endowment of natural resources and all of that but we are all also of the view that we have to move our economies beyond dependency. I think that when we look at Nigeria, that is the path you are moving to. You are trying to build an economy that is very independent and so we talk about moving Ghana beyond aid and moving Africa beyond aid. The more we can really trade among ourselves and invest with each other, the better it is for our people,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo has over the past one year indicated his resolve to grow the country’s economy from one of dependence on foreign aid to independence, and ensuring its development using its local resources.
Nana Akufo-Addo, who has on various national and international platforms emphasized his belief that Ghana, like many other African countries, is endowed with enormous resources to guarantee its growth, recently caught global attention when he made a strong case for his position at an event which had French President Emmanuel Macron as a guest.
Dr. Bawumia, who is the head of the country’s economic management team, is responsible for key government projects aimed at making the concept of Ghana beyond aid a reality, and he believes that other African countries, especially Nigeria, can replicate the concept and take advantage of the benefits that come with it.
Abukakar Bukalo Saraki, who is in Ghana for a symposium being organised by Parliament, applauded the Akufo Addo administration for the implementation of policies aimed at bringing greater relief to Ghanaians.
-Citifmonline