President Nana Akufo-Addo has stated that African leaders see the current geopolitical crisis as an opportunity to rely less on food imports from outside the continent.
“There is a renewed commitment towards an inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and economic integration and the intensity of the challenges we face today is only matched, like never before, by the immensity of the opportunity before us. We, the current leaders of Africa, should be determined not to waste the crisis that confronts us,” the president said
He was addressing the 77th Session of the United Nations’ General Assembly on Wednesday in New York .
“Incidentally, 2022 is billed as Africa’s Year to take action on food and nutrition development goals. We see the current geopolitical crisis as an opportunity to rely less on food imports from outside the continent and use better our sixty per cent global share of arable lands to increase food production,” President Akufo-Addo
Acccording to him, Africa has seen the devastating impact of relying on Russia and Ukraine for seventy percent of its wheat consumption adding “We have enough land, enough water, enough gas, and enough manpower to produce enough fertiliser, food and energy for ourselves and for others”
“But, we also recognise that we cannot do it all by ourselves. Our message to the global investor community is, therefore, this: Africa is ready for business. Africa needs you and you need Africa. You need Africa because Africa is busily building the world’s largest single market of 1.3 billion people.
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Soon we will have a customs union, and soon we will have a continental payment system that will accelerate and facilitate trade amongst ourselves. Already, goods and services are flowing more freely across our artificial borders. See Africa for what it is: the new frontier for manufacturing, for technology, for food production. That is why six years ago, I launched in Ghana the successful policy of ‘One District One Factory’, he said
He indicated that the African Continental Free Trade Area, whose Secretariat is located in Accra, Ghana’s capital, is driving intra-Africa trade and creating an unparalleled momentum for our continent’s economic diversity and transformation.
“We know that industrialisation is the way to go and, with the single market as the added incentive, we have taken policy measures in Ghana to add value to our natural resources. For example, we are processing more of our cocoa, refining more of our gold, and we are determined to exploit the entire value chain of our huge lithium deposits, the President added.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Isaac Nuamah Yeboah
