By Jesse Ampah Owusu
Accra, Oct. 16, GNA – Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana, has urged African countries to champion a rule-based and responsible system of governance that addresses the continent’s peculiar problems.
He said Africa needed to fashion out a system of government that responded to its own needs and challenges rather than adopting models imposed from outside.
Speaker Bagbin made the call at the 10th Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference (GITFiC) conference on the 3rd Global Debt Initiative and Second AfCFTA Tertiary Students’ Congress in Accra.
The event brought together policymakers, development partners, businesses, academia and young Africans to reflect on a decade of advancing trade integration, sustainable development and Africa’s financial transformation.
It was on the theme: “Scaling GITFiC’s Global Debt Initiative: Transforming Sovereign Debt Challenges into Catalysts for Sustainable Development and Global Economic Broad-based Prosperity.”
The event also witnessed the graduation and presentation of certificates to the first cohort of the GITFiC-AfCFTA Professional Certificate course.
Speaker Bagbin called for a renewal of mindset among Africans, saying, “We need to build a mindset that champions personal awareness and responsibility.”
“First, we need to know who we are as people. Then, we focus on attitudinal change and skills development to tackle our challenges,” he added.
The Speaker said Africa was not asking the world to feed it but was calling for fair representation in its global debt initiative agenda.
Mr Zia Choudhury, UN Ghana Resident Coordinator, said the UN was committed to supporting countries like Ghana that were affected by the transatlantic slave trade in their quest for reparations and debt relief.
He noted that countries should consider debt relief as one of the possible instruments to address historic and continuing inequities.
“Debt relief creates the fiscal space that we need. But that relief doesn’t decide how that fiscal space is used, and that is where the Speaker, government and all in the room come into play,” he added.
Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Ghana’s Special Envoy for Reparations, in a speech read on his behalf, said Ghana had moved for the establishment of a Global Reparation Fund for future agreed reparations.
He said the reparation agenda should not become a shield for poor governance and mismanagement.
Dr Spio-Garbrah stressed that the dignity of those who suffered from the act could best be respected when funds were safeguarded.
Mr Selasi Koffi Ackom, Chief Executive Officer of GITFiC, advocated structured debt swap and relief frameworks, as well as better bargaining power for African debtor nations.
He said GITFiC championed comprehensive sovereign debt relief and restructuring across Africa through its flagship Global Debt Initiative.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei
Reporter: Jesse Ampah Owusu