Africans must have a ‘can-do mindset’ – Bawumia

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has rallied Africans to have a “can-do mindset” and work together to drive the continent’s economic transformation agenda.

“The most important transformation is the transformation of our mindset. We have to believe that we can do what other countries and continents have done. It is not rocket science. We must have a mindset of making things possible, not one of thinking major achievements are impossible.”

Vice President Bawumia was addressing the two-day 2018 African Transformation Forum, organized by the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), an economic policy institute in Accra.

In attendance were officials from the African Union (AU), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), African Development Bank (AfDB), captains of industry, policy makers and think tanks from Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

It provided the platform to discuss ways to boost economic growth.

The Vice President said making meaningful progress with the economy required concerted effort of all key stakeholders.

“Africa’s economic transformation agenda would make headway when policy think tanks, policy institutes, research and capacity-building organisations collaborate and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, shared knowledge and experiences and held each other accountable” he said.

He urged the adoption of new approaches and partnerships that will inform African governments about matters relating to “agriculture, youth unemployment, leveraging resources for growth and frontier issues in technological adaptation and diffusion of knowledge that will shape our continent and our lives”.



Vice President Bawumia noted that the continent had undergone slow economic growth since the 1990s, and said it was important to recognize that the depth of growth was relevant to economic transformation.

He underlined the need to break away from dependency and take responsibility for ensuring strong macro-economic stability and growth with depth.

He called for stronger domestic resource mobilization and leveraging of natural resources to make the transformation agenda a reality.

Vice President Bawumia touched on Ghana’s economy and said it was witnessing a transformational shift in gross domestic product (GDP) values in some sectors although it had been slow in coming.

Building “Ghana beyond aid” was the ultimate goal of the government, which would make the nation prosperous and self-confident – to be in charge of its economic destiny.

He added that, “this is not just a slogan, but rather an aspiration that we are working towards vigorously.