President Akufo-Addo calls AABD to task
- Post by: Frank Biananna
- June 1, 2022
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President Akufo-Addo calls AABD to task
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 22nd AABD Annual Conference hosted by the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) on the theme: “Sustainable Development beyond Aid: The focus for Africa?” on May 18, 2022, the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Akufo-Addo, who was the conference guest of honour, asked AABD and its members to play a more active role and support African governments to go beyond international aid for a prosperous Africa.
AABD President, Prof. Simon P. Sigué; Ghana Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum; Ghana President, His Exc. Nana Addo Akuf0-Addo, UPSA Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abednego O.F. Amartey, and UPSA Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Barnor.
The president proposed to the AABD a specification which includes 8 priority areas, namely:
“A. Ensuring that proceedings from this conference contains actionable proposals for consideration.
B. Focusing attention on the IMF’s unprecedented SGR reallocation for which Africa’s share is some 33 billion United States Dollars, much less than 100 billion United States Dollars promised in the 2019 Paris Summit intended to provide additional financial resources to address the vast and surging inequities the pandemic has revealed.
C. Articulating policies that will help strengthen African financial institutions like the African Development Bank, Afriexim Bank, and the Africa Finance Corporation to enable them take over greater responsibility for the financing of Africa’s development.
D. Advocating for debt cancelation for African countries to provide for sound foundation for our future progress.
E. Proposing measures to help increase significantly our capacity for domestic revenue mobilization with the average tax to GDP ratio in West Africa for example, standing at 18% and at 14.3% in Ghana, as opposed to the OECD’s average of 34% for its member states, to help finance our development potential, create opportunities for our vibrant and dynamic youth and deliver improved livelihoods for our people.
F. Re-evaluating the role of foreign credit rating agencies which act as gate keepers to global capital markets and their modus operandi, including the fixing of the so called ‘Africa risk premium.
G. Examining the measures available to us to check the illicit outflow of capital outside the continent which is currently estimated at 100 billion dollars per year.
H. Placing the development of Africa at the centre of the preoccupations of the African diaspora.”
