[ 2017-02-24 ]

John Mahama's keynote address at 2016 African Leadership Magazine Person of the
Thank you and good evening.

It is an honour to be in the company of such
distinguished fellow Africans gathered here
tonight- Africans who have committed their lives
to changing the negative narrative about our
continent. A narrative about Africa being the
richest continent, yet with the poorest people.

Let me also thank the organizers and management of
the African Leadership Magazine for this important
platform that recognises and encourages the
contributions of our African brothers and sisters,
who are in varied but significant ways
contributing to re-position Africa to be
recognised as the truly great continent that she
is.

I wish therefore to congratulate all nominees for
their well-earned nominations.

In the last decade the promise of Africa’s
future has been captured in the concept of Africa
rising.
As President, I have had the opportunity to
participate in many events that have sought to
celebrate Africa’s emergence as a continent of
prosperity rather than the previous negative
connotation of the “Dark Continent”.

During this period several African countries
emerged among the top ten fastest growing
economies in the world.

Recent developments in the world economy has
spiked some of this growth and this is evident in
the fact that the two largest economies on the
continent South Africa and Nigeria are struggling
to avoid sliding into recession.

Human progress has never been uniform. There have
been periods of swift progress and there have been
moments of reversal.

Unfortunately, as I have said before in the past,
the rest of the world often holds a strictly
binary view of Africa: we are either failing or we
are succeeding, rising to great heights or falling
to the lowest depths of destitution, disease and
societal dysfunction.

Rarely are we afforded the full range of motion
that nation building and national reconstruction
requires.
We must not be discouraged by temporary setbacks.


In such times we must diagnose the reasons for
these reversals and institute the structural
reforms necessary to put our nations back on the
path of growth.
Africa has the potential to become the next
emerging continent of world prosperity.
Opportunities abound and African entrepreneurs
must take advantage of these.

My belief in the promise of Africa is unshakeable.
That is why I believe tonight’s event that
brings together celebrated achievers from diverse
backgrounds is a clear indication that Africa has
got the right human resource to guarantee the
realization of its fullest potential.

When the world looks at Africa, the focus is
normally on the rich resources of the continent,
the gold, oil, timber, rubber, manganese, cocoa,
coffee, and all the other bountiful blessings of
nature.

These resources are to be appreciated, but as I
have always consistently maintained, the greatest
resource of Africa is its people.

Throughout history, Africa and Africans have made
indelible marks on the pages of world
civilisation.
The evidence that Africa is still rising lies
before us today in the shape of the many achievers
dotted across the continent, some of whom are
right here in this room.

But while appreciating our undeniable advantage,
it is important to acknowledge the enormous
challenges that continue to bedevil our great
continent in its desire to shed off the unenviable
tags of ‘poverty, famine and a disease ravaged
continent’.

But what solution can we proffer to erase this
blot on our conscience as African leaders?
Africa has been a great beneficiary of the global
targeting that took place at the turn of the
millennium.
Many African countries scored great success in
achieving the MDGs. Ghana my own country was one
of several African countries that achieved the
targets of halving poverty and eliminating extreme
hunger and malnutrition well in advance of the
target date of 2015.

Significant success was also achieved in universal
education with more than 97% of children of school
going age being enrolled in school, with a gender
parity of 1:1. Other successes include reduction
in maternal and infant mortality, reduction in HIV
infections, increased access to clean drinking
water.

In 2015, the UN approved a new set of global
targets known as the SDGs. With these new targets,
as African leaders, we have our work cut out for
us.

I recommend that attention must be focused on
those SDGs that pertain to Africa particularly. I
believe there are seven of these goals Africa must
pay particular attention to.

These are SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 16.

SDG 1 aims at ending poverty in all its forms.
This goal is actually a continuation of goal 1 of
the MDGs.

It is possible for Africa to build on the
tremendous success achieved in halving poverty
under the MDGs to achieve this SDG goal.

Social protection programmes aimed at wealth
redistribution and poverty reduction drew large
segments of our population out of poverty. We need
to build on this achievement.

SDG 2 aims at ending hunger. Africa has a
comparative advantage when it comes to
agriculture. We have not sufficiently leveraged
this advantage. The time for Africa’s green
revolution is now.
Public and private investments in agriculture and
agribusiness must be encouraged. It is said that
Africa holds up to 15% reserves of the worlds
arable lands.

These lands must be put to good use to end hunger
and create jobs. Modernizing agriculture is a
must.
Scientific agricultural production using improved
seeds, mechanization and irrigation is absolutely
essential.
The mass of African agriculture is rain-fed and
based on small holder production. Medium to large
scale farmers must be encouraged utilizing modern
agriculture technology.

Small holder productivity must also be enhanced by
using modern methods of production. In Ghana a new
concept of farmers’ service centres (FSC)
introduced by my administration will help advance
modernization of agriculture and increase food
production to eliminate hunger.

SDG 3 aims at universal health care. Health it is
said is wealth and a healthy nation makes a
wealthy nation. Under the MDGs much progress was
made in promoting healthcare across Africa.

Maternal mortality rates are on a downward trend.
Women must not be a statistic. As African leaders
we must work to ensure that no woman dies in the
process of carrying out her natural role of
procreation.

All children must survive childbirth and under-5
mortalities must be brought to zero. In Ghana, our
intervention in achieving universal healthcare has
been on a three (3)-pronged approach.

Improving and extending health facilities, major
referral hospitals, Health Centres and CHPS
compounds.

Training adequate Professional personnel to
provide service in the health facilities.

Improving and expanding the Health Insurance
scheme in order to ensure coverage for all.

SDG 4 aims at creating opportunity for all to
achieve equitable quality education. For Africa
the focus should be to aim for universal secondary
school completion, and also prioritize acquisition
of skills through TVET.

With this in view, during my term in office, I
began the single largest programme for expansion
of secondary education in Ghana. We began the
construction of 200 new secondary schools across
the country mostly in underserved rural
communities.

SDG 7 aims at access to affordable, reliable and
sustainable energy for all. This is perhaps the
most binding constraint to African growth and
development.

All across the continent from Cape Town to Cairo,
African economic growth is stunted by a lack of
access to adequate power. Part of the reason for
the slow down of Ghana’s growth was a lack of
adequate power. In recent years we have had to go
through a crippling load management programme
popularly referred to in Ghana as ‘dumsor’.

Aggressive emergency expansion of generation which
saw a fast track deployment of 850MW of power, and
the commencement of utilization of significant
offshore gas wells has given Ghana, once gain, the
prospect of becoming a major exporter of power in
the sub region.

Happily, this is the story across the continent.
As I travel around I see new transmission lines
and generating plants coming up. With the support
of the AfDB and other financial institutions,
additional megawatts of conventional and renewable
energy are being pumped into Africa.

SDG 9 aims at building resilient infrastructure,
industrialization and innovation. Building
domestic and regional infrastructure stimulates
economic activity and in turn spurs growth.

Investment in infrastructure spending is rising.
From Rwanda, through Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal,
Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire to Morocco, one can see
significant investments being made in roads,
ports, railways, bridges, airports, ICT and
telecommunications and other critical economic
infrastructure.

SDG 16 aims at promoting inclusive societies for
sustainable development and effective accountable
institutions. This goal encourages us to build
societies that create opportunity for all. In
which no segment of the society is left behind.

This relates to governance and democratic
consolidation. Africa has turned the corner when
it comes to the issue of democracy and good
governance.

All sovereignty must be built on the will of the
people. Democracy, transparency, free expression
and participation of the people in their
governance unleashes the creative potential of the
citizens.

It is a force for good and helps to ensure
sustainable progress. Progress achieved under
transparent democratic systems are more
sustainable than compliance exacted under
unconstitutional governments or dictatorships.


Democracy is not a one size fits all exercise.
Democracy evolves and is not imposed. Countries
must progress on the path of democracy according
to their own cultural and demographic
peculiarities.

A free, objective, impartial and accurate media is
a desirable component of democratic consolidation.
Civil society organizations, active traditional
authorities and religious leaders all constitute a
positive addition to democratic consolidation.

ECOWAS has earned plaudits for its recent
intervention in the Gambia to uphold the will of
the Gambian people in the December 01 elections.
While this represents a positive out-turn of a
regional determination to uphold our charter on
democracy and good governance, such intervention
may not represent a blue print applicable in all
circumstances.

Under this goal we must strengthen our governance
institutions and make them accountable. Systems
and legislation to deepen the fight against
corruption must be established.

How can Africa win the progress race, I believe
that in addition to the above, Africa must form
beneficial partnerships with all regions of the
world. But above all Africa must form a
partnership with itself. We must go beyond playing
lip service to regional integration.

Barriers to free trade and investment across the
continent continues to be a major constraint to
Africa’s progress and growth. Traditional trade
flows established by the colonization of the
continent have been maintained after many decades
of independence.

Continental trade estimated at an average of
12-15% is abysmal. Comparative figures for North
America is 40%, and EU 60%. We must guarantee the
free movement of people, goods and services across
the continent.

This can only result in a win win situation for
all. Taking down barriers to trade will create a
larger playing field for African Entrepreneurs and
will dramatically expand cross border investments.

Africa as a market has a population of over one
billion people. A fast growing middle class with
increasing disposable income is a most attractive
prospect for investment.

The full benefits of this positive aspect of
Africa’s demography can only be realised in a
situation of borders open to trade. The African
Union has been fiddling with the idea of visa free
travel in Africa.

This is already operational in West Africa where
all ECOWAS citizens enjoy 90-day visa free travel
to each others countries. Last year by executive
order I relaxed travel restrictions for African
passport holders.
From July 1st last year, holders of African
passports have been allowed to apply for entry
visas at the point of entry into Ghana. The sky
has not fallen.

We have not realised any dramatic influx of
migrants into our country. Indeed, it has been
applauded especially by business people who travel
regularly to Ghana as a novelty that has
facilitated their investments.

The next two decades are the most critical for
Africa’s breakthrough. I believe that with
persistent work and diligence Africa can truly
claim this century as ours.

We need to push for growth in our economies. It is
said that Africa must grow at an average of 6-8%
to keep up with the rate of growth of our
population. We are a continent in transition.

While population is slowing, it is not slowing
fast enough. Education and empowerment of women is
critical in this period of demographic transition.

Educated and empowered women means fewer children
on whom greater investment in education and
training can be made.

On this note, I once again thank you for this
opportunity and your attention.

This may not be an exhaustive blue-print, but I
remain positive that with the unflinching
commitment to work together and die a little for
the cause of our dear continent, Africa’s
forward march towards sustainable progress can be
achieved over the next 20 years.
Thank you very much and God Bless Africa.

Source - John Dramani Mahama

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