Africa must speak against unfair global financial system – Ken Ofori-Atta

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has called on African countries to speak loud and clear against the current unfair structure of the global financial system.

He described the current financial system as not fit for purpose for the future, a situation that requires the countries to stand against.

The global financial system is the worldwide framework of legal agreements, institutions, and both formal and informal economic actors that together facilitate international flows of financial capital for purposes of investment and trade financing.

He expressed these sentiments during a signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Ghana and the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) last week for the hosting of the annual meetings of the AfDB Group in Accra from the 24th to 28th May 2021.

“I would like to express great appreciation to the Bank for entrusting the hosting of the 56th Annual Meetings of AfDB and 47th Annual Meetings of ADF from 24th to 28th May 2021 in Accra. We reiterate our joy in this honour to host the event.

“We promise to champion African excellence and deliver a befitting event. It is important that Africa leverages the forum to speak loud and clear on the current unfair structure of the global financial system, which is not fit for purpose for the future.”

Secretary General of the African Development Bank Group Professor Vincent Nmehielle has said that the bank is committed to helping African countries deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on economies.

He stated that building a resilient Africa after the pandemic will be high on the agenda of stakeholders at next year’s meeting.

“COVID has really provided Africa the catalyst to think about the number of its policies from economic to health. And, of course, we have also seen that because of COVID, we can hardly distinguish between health and the economy anymore.

“Our social protection systems, for example, are inadequate when compared to the systems in other countries.

“This is evident in instances when lockdowns are implemented. So the bank is going to use this period to engage with member countries on a number of things on how to set up our economies to deal with situations like COVID in the future.”