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The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is confident that the African peoples shall work to take Africa to where it deserves to be, as a prosperous and dynamic member of the world community, stressing that “we need to, and we shall move Africa Beyond Aid.”

At an event organised by the Royal Africa Society, Facebook and the Ghana 60 years on Committee, on the theme “Africa Beyond Aid”, on Tuesday, 21st November, 2017, President Akufo-Addo noted that Africa no longer wants to be the default place to go to find the footage to illustrate famine stories.

“We no longer want to offer the justification for those who want to be rude and abusive about Africa and her peoples. It is time to build our economies that are not dependent on charity and handouts… We have learnt from long and bitter experience that, no matter how generous the charity, we would, and, indeed, we have remained poor,” he said.

Describing Africa as a rich continent, and, currently, with the world’s second fastest economic growth rates, the world's fastest-growing region for foreign direct investment, and in possession of nearly 30 percent of the earth's remaining mineral resources, the President bemoaned the fact that the masses of the African peoples remain poor.

With Ghana endowed with natural resources, the President stressed that “we can, and we should be able to build a Ghana which looks to the use of her own resources and their proper management as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country.”

Making reference to the cocoa industry, he noted that Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, who produce 65% of the world’s output of cocoa make less than $6 billion from a cocoa industry that is a $100 billion industry.

“If we simply ground and sold the cocoa in paste form, instead of selling the cocoa beans, we double our earnings. In much the same way as we would double our earnings from gold, if we sold it refined, than in its raw state. We are determined to process these products,” he said.

The President stated that nations it is time that African countries were responsible for processing their own resources, adding that it is time that “we, in Africa, manage our resources well, to generate wealth for our populations.”

During the past 20 years, President Akufo-Addo stated that the countries that have made rapid economic strides have been the ones that have encouraged high levels of investment in entrepreneur development, and the ones that have promoted and developed a culture of accountable governance, free of corruption, and where institutions of state see themselves as independent public entities serving the wider public interest, not the temporary conveniences of the governments of the day.

“We have a responsibility to make our countries attractive to our young generation. They should feel they have a worthwhile future, if they stay and build their nations. We should be, and are shamed by the desperation that drives a young person to attempt to cross the Sahara on foot, and the Mediterranean Sea in rickety boats, in the hope of finding a better future in Europe,” he added.

The President continued, “We are not disclaiming aid, but we do want to discard a mind-set of dependency and living on handouts; it is unhealthy both for the giver and for the receiver.”