President Akufo-Addo urges development partners to extend debt relief to Africa

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana has called on international creditors and financial institutions to provide comprehensive debt relief to heavily indebted African countries to enable them to mobilise adequate resources to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).
Speaking at the opening of the SDGs Action Summit 2024, which attracted participants from around the globe in Accra on Wednesday, Akufo-Addo said that many African countries were burdened by unsustainable debt levels, constraining their ability to invest in critical development projects and servicing these debts diverted valuable resources away from essential services such as health care, education and infrastructure.
The Ghanaian leader, who is also the Co-Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Emeritus Group of SDG Advocates, staid that the objective of the SDGs Action Summit 2024 was to ignite renewed commitment on the continent to the SDGs and to catalyse bold and collective actions for the continent’s socio-economic transformation.
It also seeks to identify the binding constraints on the implementation of the SDGs and highlight the fundamental enablers to achieving success, including crucial policy and institutional imperatives.
The two-day summit will facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences, serve as a platform for sharing practical insights and lessons learned and galvanise action on ‘Quick Wins’.
It will serve as a platform for a unified voice of Africa and reiterate a joint commitment to expediting progress on the implementation of the SDGs ahead of the Summit in the future.
President Akufo-Addo, who proposed a four-point agenda for immediate action at the global, regional and national levels to enhance dramatical chances of achieving the SDGs, mentioned the first, which was unlocking financing for accelerated SDGs implementation.
“Africa’s commitment to the SDGs is unquestionable, yet our efforts are consistently hampered by a financing gap,” he added.
Quoting recent estimates by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), he said Africa required an additional $1.3 trillion annually to achieve the SDGs by 2030.
“This shortfall is a substantial barrier to our aspirations of ending poverty, ensuring quality education, achieving gender equality, providing clean water and sanitation and fostering sustainable economic growth across the continent.
“Addressing these challenges requires innovative, bold actions to unlock the necessary financing for accelerated SDG implementation,” the report by the Daily Graphic on Thursday quoted President Akufo-Ado as saying.
It added that President Akufo-Addo said while striving for a more just and fit for purpose international system, Africans should also mobilise resources back home by accelerating the long overdue establishment of its own financial institutions.
He reiterated Ghana’s suggestion that required each member of the AU to deposit a minimum of 30 per cent of their sovereign reserves into African multilateral development banks, which would enable the banks to offer member countries the needed resources at cheaper rates.
President Akufo-Addo also suggested that the prioritisation of human capital development in Africa was crucial because with 60 per cent of its population under the age of 25, Africa was uniquely positioned to leverage this union of full energy to drive economic growth, innovation and sustainable development.
According to him, in order to realise this potential, the continent must make strategic investments in the youth by increasing access to quality education, especially science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education to equip the youth with the skills required in the digital age,
GIK/APA