Hope Dwumadie a non governmental organization is ready to take Ghana by storm.
The originator Hope Avorgah who was born and bred in Kumasi has the ideology
that it is time for Ghanaians especially Africans to manage his own affairs. "We
will never be fully emancipated until Africa is free from the shackles of
slavery. Although Africa and Africans are basically free, we are not yet
emancipated,"
Sankofa which should be ideally be in heads and hearts of Africans.
Talking about economic emancipation in Africa is problematic in that Africa is a
diverse continent with economies that are significantly different and thus would
require different diagnosis. There are therefore no simple solutions to the
question of economic emancipation in Africa. What is certain is that true
economic emancipation in Africa will be realized only when the continent’s
economies are growing at their full potential, which is not the case currently.
Today there is a consensus among Africans and non-Africans alike, that Africa as
a continent is far behind other continents in terms of economic development.
Most of the poorest nations in the world are on the African continent. For
example, Africa’s GDP accounts for only 1.2 percent of the world GDP, even when
the continent’s population is 11 percent of world population. Average income per
person in Africa stands at about U$450 in comparison with U$5,000 for Malaysia.
The proportion of the population that lives in abject poverty is estimated at 46
percent in Africa, compared to about 20 percent in Latin America and the
Caribbean. We are all aware of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
One of these goals is to halve poverty by 2015. Only a few countries in
Sub-Saharan Africa are likely to meet this target. It is estimated that the
continent would need to grow consistently by about 7 percent per year to be able
to reduce poverty by half as envisaged in the MDGs. American president barrack
Obama said that it is time Africans manage his own affairs.FRANK APPIAH NHYIRA
FM
