As President John Dramani Mahama resumes office today as the fourth President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana, the Pan-African Business Forum (PABF) has challenged the United States government to lend more support for Africa’s economic renaissance.
Speaking at a Press Conference in Accra on Sunday, the forum President, Prince Prosper Agbesi, extolled the immense contribution of the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA) initiated by former U.S. president Bill Clinton and George Bush, to the growth of the African continent. He however said that the forum “expects that President Obama, himself of African extraction, will commit to designing and driving an even more impactful development assistance program through which America can even propel Africa’s economic renaissance.”
He said there is still much more to do since the MCA, which had aimed to put together about $2.4 billion for the global compact, ended up with only $1.5 billion.
The Forum leader also said that since Africa has so many resource dependence on donor support should be minimized so that future generations would not have to be burdened with debt.
Noting that the climate for doing business in Ghana was improving fast, Agbesi lauded Ghana for qualifying for the second compact of the MCA project; adding that “there is something good happening in Ghana. Good reforms happening here and business can only be effective if the environment is conducive.”
The forum congratulated President Mahama on his reelection, and South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma on his re-endorsement as the leader of the African National Congress (ANC). According to the forum, the only way an African renaissance could be successful is by combining forces of presidents Mahama, Zuma and US president Barack Obama.
The Pan-African Business Forum is a non-political organisation that include like-minded statesmen, entrepreneurs and professionals from all over Africa who share the vision of using international public-private partnership between African states and foreign development partners and private investors, on a pan-continent level. They support national government to uphold multi-party democracy based on free and fair elections, constitutional rule and an independent judiciary.
