The former president of Ghana, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has urged the Republic of Korea to leverage its unique advancements to partner Ghana and Africa to shore up development in various sectors, such as housing, technology and the growth of economies.
This, he said, could only be achieved with the fundamental shifts in how African economies function and run.
He said this at the 2023 Korea-Africa Business Summit in Korea, Seoul, last Thursday.
The two-day summit provided a “valuable venue for enabling rich and in-depth discussion” around several key issues, including Finance 4.0, Innovation and Youth Entrepreneurship, Trade, Industrialisation, Energy and Resources.
“Sound economic management, founded on broad and far-reaching governance and economic reforms, must take root in African countries. Monetary policy should be geared towards sustainable growth, and this should come with equitable distribution of the proceeds of that growth,” he said.
He noted that Ghana, as well as Africa, would obtain experience from South Korea through partnership, as they were categorised as economic giants globally in terms of industrialisation, innovation, science and technology.
The former president stated that Africa produced three to four million jobs annually, which was not enough for the number of young Africans that enter the labour market.
“About twelve million young Africans enter the labour market every year, unfortunately, only three and four million jobs are created annually in Africa. Africa needs to double its job creation capacity to keep up with the growing youth bulge, or it will turn into a ticking time bomb,” he said.
On the issue of addressing challenges faced by Africa, he stated that there was a need to accelerate the growth, and diversify African economies from just the export of primary products to strive for value addition for exports, saying that “we must promote African entrepreneurship and enterprise, but above all, we expand trade among ourselves”.
BY JESSEL LARTEY THERSON-COFIE
