President John Dramani Mahama has called for a fairer and more equitable international financial system, arguing that African economies continue to face disproportionately high borrowing costs despite the continent’s vast natural resources.
He made the call when he met with members of the Council on Foreign Relations and top business executives, where he highlighted what he described as imbalances in the global financial and trading system.
According to President Mahama, African countries often have to borrow at higher interest rates than other economies, even as their natural resources are extracted and exported to developed markets at relatively low prices.
He questioned the fairness of a system in which international companies profit from Africa’s resources while African countries bear the high cost of financing their own development.
President Mahama also criticised what he described as artificial barriers that continue to hinder Africa’s economic progress and limit the continent’s ability to compete effectively in global markets.
He stressed the need for African countries to move beyond the export of raw materials and retain more value from their resources through local processing.
On Ghana’s cocoa industry, President Mahama said the country would seek to process at least 50 percent of its cocoa domestically, reducing dependence on the export of raw cocoa beans.
He also indicated that the country would pursue greater local value addition in the minerals sector, particularly gold, as part of efforts to ensure that more of the wealth generated from Ghana’s natural resources remains within the country.
The President’s comments form part of his broader call for changes to global economic structures that, in his view, continue to disadvantage African economies and constrain their development prospects.
