Let’s increase trade among ourselves – Mahama to African leaders

“As we celebrate Nkrumah's 114th birthday on September 21, let us strive to live up to the ideals Nkrumah stood for by working together with fellow Africans to increase trade among ourselves, add value to our raw materials, diversify our economies and create well-paying jobs for the teeming youth of Ghana and Africa as a whole,” former President John Dramani Mahama has said.

He noted that with a leadership that unites rather than “divides our people and inspires them to greatness rather than impose on them, Ghana and Africa will fully realise their potential.”

In Mr Mahama’s view, building the Ghana and Africa we want together is the surest way to honour the memory of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

Mr Mahama said these in memory of Ghana’s First President Dr Kwame Nkrumah on the occasion of his 114th birthday.

Recounting his recent speech at the Humanity Summit in Faro, Portugal, on the theme; "Creating a new paradigm of trade between the Global North and the Global South,” Mr Mahama emphasised that Kwame Nkrumah's subtext found expression in his adoption of VeneKlasen and Miller’s concept of power as comprising a quartet of "the power over, the power to, the power within and the power with" in his keynote address.

Mr Mahama re-emphasised among others that, “once Africa establishes the power within—that is to say, once we have empowered ourselves—we will then be in the position, insofar as trade is concerned, to negotiate with the Global North, in Africa’s best interest, in a manner anchored in mutual respect and cooperation.”

He added that only then can we say that a new paradigm of trade between the Global North and Global South has been created.