African integration: Dr. Bawumia assures Ghana’s unflinching support

…Launches ACET 2021 African Transformation Report

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has assured of Ghana’s commitment in the integration process of the sub-region.

Speaking at the launch of the African Centre for Economic Transformation’s (ACET) 2021 African Transformation report and the third virtual African Transformation Forum on the theme ‘Integrating to Transform’, the Dr. Bawumia said integrating to transform will take able and dedicated leaders and Ghana through the leadership of H.E. Nana Addo Danqua Akufo- Addo is ready for the challenge.

He added that “Ghana’s commitment to integration is at its strongest since independence”.

As host of AfCFTA secretariat, Ghana see her role to the call for integration and collaboration as crucial,” he stated. Adding that the continent’s economic recovery and transformation is only possible with an enhance collaboration and further integration.

According to the Vice President, the ACET’s DEPTH framework is essential in understanding and pursing transformation in the sub region.

The DEPTH framework states that to ensure that growth is sustainable and to transform economies, countries need to diversify their product and service lines, make their exports more competitive, increase the productivity of firms, farms, and offices, and upgrade technology in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and services—all to improve human and economic well-being.

Dr. Bawumia observed that even though Covid-19 pandemic has held back transformation in Africa, it has also provided opportunities for acceleration in areas such as digitalization and this can be unlocked through integration and collaboration on shared challenges.

Ghana has therefore recognized the need to generate productive employment, support digital innovation, manage climate risk, and this is reflected through the country’s policy initiatives such as Free Senior High School, industrialization agenda anchored around the One District One Factory, agricultural revolution- Planting for Food and Jobs and Rearing for Food and Jobs policies.

The country also embarked on digital transformation by leveraging on technology in every aspect of human activities as essential component to the transformation agenda. For instance, transportation of drugs via drones helped the nation to overcome some of its infrastructure and transport challenges.

The advent of drone to deliver medical supplies and vaccines leapfrog some of our development challenges and overcome infrastructural and logistical challenges in saving lives in remote areas,” Dr. Bawumia stressed.

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The country has also leverage on digitation to uniquely identify our population with the issuance of biometric ID cards. The cards were then used to expand our tax base by converting the unique ID numbers into tax identification numbers,” he added.

To be sure, at the end of 2016 only 4.1% of the country’s adult population was registered with the Ghana Revenue Authority for the purpose of tax payment but as at 2020, it increased by 86%.

Ghana also implemented a digital address system for all properties and locations in the country. To address the financial inclusion challenges, Ghana implemented the Mobile Money interoperability and made bank account and mobile money accounts interoperable enabling individuals to send and receive cash seamlessly.

In so doing we have increased the proportion of adults with access to banking services from 30% to 90%”

Dr. Bawumia commended ACET for its continuous effort to deepen knowledge, diagnose development problems and convey platforms stakeholders to share experiences and actionable solutions.

On his part, the founder and president of ACET, Dr. K.Y. Amoako observed that “Integrating to Transform” explores the critical need for African countries to increase collaboration and work together, across borders, to tackle shared challenges, harness regional opportunities, and enable economies to scale and in turn, accelerate Africa’s economic transformation.

Despite the serious challenges and economic uncertainties facing Africa right now, we are in a unique moment,” he noted.

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Regional integration has long eluded our continent, but we are seeing progress.  The African Continental Free Trade Area has come into effect this year, for example, and it offers a pathway for countries to advance integration beyond trade and markets,” he stressed.

Dr. Amoako further underscored that the pressing pan-African issues such as jobs and education, digital connectivity, climate change, infrastructure and energy, needed to be addressed in a collaborative way and not by countries working in isolation.

Prof. John Asafu-Adjaye, Senior Fellow- ACET, reiterated that the African Continental Free Trade Area offers an opportunity for African countries to move integration beyond just trade and markets, towards collaborating to address the long-term challenges that constrain Africa’s development.

He observed that Africa’s growing youth bulge presents an opportunity to reap a demographic dividend to boost economic growth. To do this he challenged African countries to create opportunities for productive employment in labour-intensive sectors; while scaling up education and skills training, particularly for girls, to ensure that workers are well equipped and productive, as well as speeding up the demographic transition to help reap the dividend by having more workers than dependents.

Many African countries are already experiencing climate-related stresses such as droughts, floods, and variable rainfall. And most of them are highly vulnerable to climate impacts due to their low adaptive capacity.  But by leveraging technology to manage key climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, ecosystems, and energy, African countries can turn these risks into opportunities,” he noted.

The main message of the 2021 African Transformation Report is that Africa’s economic transformation requires much more progress on regional integration. To integrate faster and deeper, countries should go beyond trade and markets and collaborate to deliver regional public goods such as building transport corridors, managing river basins, establishing cross-border digital connectivity, and controlling outbreaks of pests and disease.

They should also tackle three frontline challenges that can make or break their efforts to transform their economies: finding productive work for a young and rapidly growing workforce, innovating with digital technologies, and managing climate risks—all national challenges with regional solutions.

Source: Kofi Ahovi