Greene County Democrat

Tag: President Nana Akufo-Addo

  • Newswire : African leaders show new militancy amid growing environmental crises

    President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana addresses UN General Assembly

    Sep. 25, 2023 (GIN) – “We must make up for time lost to foot-dragging, arm-twisting and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels.”
     
    That was Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the U.N. speaking to world leaders at a General Assembly symposium at United Nations headquarters this month.
     
    The world still has the capacity to course correct if only global leaders would take action and support developing countries in addressing the crises, he added.
     
    “Our focus here is on climate solutions – and our task is urgent. Humanity has opened the gates of hell,” Guterres said. “If nothing changes we are heading towards a 2.8 degrees temperature rise towards a dangerous and unstable world.
     
    Meanwhile, in speeches before the U.N., African leaders presented a new and militant message: The continent is done being a victim of a post-World War II order. It is a global power and must be partnered with — not sidelined. 
     
    “We as Africa have come to the world, not to ask for alms, charity or handouts, but to work with the rest of the global community and give every human being in this world a decent chance of security and prosperity,” Kenyan President William Ruto was reported to say by the Associated Press. 
     
    He urged countries in the Global South to pool together their trillions of dollars in collective resources to independently finance climate initiatives.
     
    Neither Africa nor the developing world stands in need of charity from developed countries,” he said, proposing a universal tax on the sale of fossil fuels.
     
    Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo blamed Africa’s present-day challenges on “historical injustices” and called for reparations for the slave trade. 
     
    President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said the continent is poised to “regain its position as a site of human progress” despite dealing with a “legacy of exploitation and subjugation.”
     
    “Africa is nothing less than the key to the world’s future,” said Nigerian leader Bola Tinubu, who leads a country that, by 2050, is forecast to become the third most populous in the world.
     
    With the largest bloc of countries at the United Nations, it is understandable that African leaders increasingly demand a bigger voice in multilateral institutions, said Murithi Mutiga, program director for Africa at the Crisis Group. “Those calls will grow especially at a time when the continent is being courted by big powers amid growing geopolitical competition.”
     
    “Africa has no need for partnerships based on official development aid that is politically oriented and tantamount to organized charity,” President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo said. “Trickling subsidies filtered by the selfish interests of donors will certainly not allow for a real and effective rise of our continent.”
     
    Tshisekedi’s country has the world’s largest reserves of cobalt and is also one of the largest producers of copper, both critical for clean energy transition.
     
    What Africa needs instead, according to Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, is a more inclusive global financial system where Africans can participate as “a partner that has (a) lot to offer to the world and not only a warehouse that supplies cheap commodities to countries or international multinational corporations.”
     

  • Newswire : Vice President Kamala Harris to reset relations with Africa on her first trip to continent

    VP Harris welcomed to Ghana

     


    Mar. 27, 2023 (GIN) – The U.S. has been sending its best and its brightest to Africa with gifts and promises aimed at winning back the continent from its partnerships with China.
     
    This week, Vice President Kamala Harris went off on a 9 day trip designed to discuss increased investment in three countries to help spur economic growth.  Starting with Ghana, she will stop over in Tanzania before winding up in Zambia.
     
    It is the fifth major trip by a senior administration official since the U.S.-Africa summit in Washington, DC, following trips by Secretary Janet Yellen, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the First Lady, and Secretary Antony Blinken, most recently.
     
    This reality tour reflects a growing awareness of the need to deepen U.S. engagement with the continent when it faces growing competition from other global powers, especially China and Russia.
     According to an official statement, the trip will build on December’s US-Africa summit in Washington where President Joe Biden said the U.S. was “all in on Africa’s future.” 
     
    But Ghana’s once-thriving economy is going through its most difficult financial crisis in decades which has presented President Nana Akufo-Addo with rare opposition from the youth. Once described as Africa’s shining star by the World Bank, today it is no longer the economic poster child of West Africa. 
     
    The country is seeking to restructure its debt amid surging inflation of over 50%. Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has just been in Beijing leading negotiations with the Chinese government.
     
    “So far, very positive and encouraging meetings in China,” the finance minister tweeted as he expressed optimism that it would secure external assurances “very soon”.
     
    It is not clear what, if any help, Ms Harris can offer, but she will be under pressure to act like a willing partner in the wake of Mr Ofori-Atta’s China visit.
     
    Her bilateral meeting with President Akufo-Addo will be followed by a visit to a local recording studio in Accra and a meeting with young people in the creative industry.
     
    Next, after delivering a major speech to an audience of young people, the VP will visit the Cape Coast slave castle where she will give a major speech about the brutality of slavery and the African diaspora to an audience of young people. 
     
    On Wednesday, in Accra, the Vice President will meet with women entrepreneurs and discuss the economic empowerment of women.  She will announce a series of continent-wide public and private sector investments to help close the digital gender divide and to empower women economically more broadly. 
     
    Ghana will be followed by Tanzania where she is scheduled to meet President Samia Suluhu Hassan and take part in a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy there followed by a session with entrepreneurs at a tech incubator and co-working space in Dar.
     
    Finally, off to Zambia which finds itself in a similar position to Ghana. The copper-rich nation became the first African country to default on its debt when the Covid pandemic hit. Zambia is in prolonged discussions with China to restructure its debt and has also sought financial support from the IMF. 
     
    Lastly, in Lusaka, on Saturday, April 1st, the Vice President will convene business and philanthropic leaders, from both the continent and from the United States, to discuss digital and financial inclusion on the continent.  They will discuss how to best partner together and build on the work of her trip and all the private sector announcements that she announced on the trip. 
     
    For decades, the perception of the U.S. has been that it treats African countries like charity cases, according to several regional experts. That was exacerbated during the Trump administration, which largely ignored the continent or reportedly disparaged it. Former President Donald Trump, in a 2018 meeting, referred to some African nations as “shithole countries.” At the same time, China enhanced its investments in Africa, helping to build roads and other infrastructure projects and creating firmer economic and political relations.
     
    “Washington is playing catch up in Africa,” said Cameron Hudson, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Africa Program. “With all of the business investment that the Chinese have made comes a lot of leverage and political influence in those countries. It’s not just that they’re making money there. It’s that they now have skin in the game in Africa in ways that we don’t. And that gives them leverage that we don’t have.

     

  • Newswire :  Huge heist by Ghanaian bank officers worse than feared

     Ghanaian Times headlines about theft

    Nov. 12, 2018 (GIN) – Depositors may want to steer clear of banking in Ghana while over a dozen bank officers and shareholders face claims they lent themselves millions of dollars but failed to repay. Business Ghana, a local news outlet, reported that 13 shareholders and directors of the defunct Capital Bank Ghana Limited and UT Bank engaged in acts that led to the collapse of the two banks. By their alleged actions, the defendants “have breached their fiduciary duties under the Companies Code and have caused serious financial loss to the banks,” say receivers for the defunct banks. The officers allegedly lent themselves about $837 million Ghanaian cedis – equal to $174 million U.S. dollars. Auditors with the PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm confirmed that actions by the bank officers destabilized Capital Bank which was declared bankrupt earlier last year. That led to the collapse of five other indigenous banks that were merged into one in August 2018. Capitol Bank founder William Ato Essien allegedly flouted “all banking and risk management rules by treating depositors’ funds and public funds as his personal cash,” the auditors said. Briefly detained by the Economic and Organized Crimes Office, he was granted bail and invited to assist with ongoing investigations. All this has occurred despite a campaign pledge by President Nana Akufo-Addo to be the anti-corruption candidate. An investigation by Business Insider, published this month, found that a half dozen appointees of the president were accused of serious corruption, from bribery to extortion, selling contaminated fuel , visa fraud, and posing as journalists to attend the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia. After an inquiry, all the accused were fully exonerated by ad-hoc committees of Parliament. Meanwhile, a Special Prosecutor to investigate corruption complains that a year after his office was established, it is confined to a small house “woefully inadequate” to accommodate employees. And in Italy, some 200 Ghanaian students say they are stranded without food, are homeless and possibly facing deportation because necessary documents for their scholarships have not been validated by the Embassy. Italian Ambassador to Ghana, Giovanni Favilli, however, charged the students with abusing Italy’s hospitality and threatened them with prosecution. The claims were dismissed by the President of Ghanaian Students in Italy who disputed the accuracy of the charges.