Africa must stop depending on foreign aid – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Africa has what it takes to develop on its own without aid from the Western world.

Addressing a press conference with France President Emmanuel Macron during the latter’s one-day working visit to Ghana on Thursday, President Akufo- Addo said African countries cannot continue to make policies based on the support the Western world can give.

He said, “Our responsibility to charter a path which is about how we can develop our nations ourselves. It is not right for a country like Ghana, 60-years after independence to still have its health and education budget being financed on the basis of the generosity and charity of European taxpayers”.

He stated that Western countries such as France offer help only when they stand to benefit adding that even though those helps are welcomed, Africa should not depend on them.

“We need to have a mindset that says we can do it… and once we have that mindset we’ll see there’s a liberating factor for ourselves,” he said.

Akufo-Addo said the only way Africa can stop its young men and women from migrating to other countries to seek greener pastures is to put in place systems that work.

“We want to have those energies working inside our countries and we are going to have those energies if we begin to build systems that tells the young people of our country that their hopes, the opportunities are right here with us,” he stressed.

He noted that Africa has at least 30% of the most important minerals in the world as well as vast arable lands and the youngest population, a clear indication that the continent can succeed on its own.

“Our concern should be with what we need to do in this 21st century to move Africa away from being cup-in-hand and begging for aid, for charity and for handouts,” he said.