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Dumping of 'waste' in Africa must stop - Mahama
Speaking at the UN General Assembly Wednesday, the Ghanaian leader insisted that what Africa needs is not development assistance from developed countries but “a fair chance” to trade with the rest of the world.
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According to the president, Ghanaians who embark on the risky journey to Europe are poultry farmers or entrepreneurs who "sell their shops and undertake the journey because they can no longer compete with the tons of frozen chicken dumped on African markets annually, or the adverse business environment they have to face."
He continued:"Africa does not need your sympathy or Overseas Development Assistance. Africa needs a fair chance to trade with the rest of the world and amongst ourselves. The progress towards the creation of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) is commendable and must be fast tracked."
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"Raising intra African trade alone from the paltry average of 15% will create better opportunities for Africa's youth.
"We can achieve a lot in collaboration with the rest of the world and yet we must realize that a lot rests within our own capacity to achieve as Africans. Recently I took the decision to allow citizens of other African countries travelling to Ghana to obtain visas on arrival. This would stimulate trade and investment if it were replicated across the continent."
He further called for a "re-ordering of the economic relations" to create a boundless opportunity that will keep young Africans at home instead of travel to Europe to seek for greener pastures.
The president also bemoaned the building of new walls by countries due to fear of migrants. He accused extremists of hijacking the discussion on migration and spreading fear to young ones.
Hate speech is becoming common. People complain of being tired of being politically correct. In many places xenophobia has taken over rational thinking. In the vote on Brexit, the spectre of a flood of refugees was used as the instrument for propelling an exit from the EU," he said
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"It's a paradox of our world, that nearly 30 years after Reagan called for the Berlin Wall to be torn down, new walls are springing up everywhere, he added.
He said the world has enough resource to guarantee a decent life for everybody, citing how little resources advanced to some African countries have been put to good use in education and halving poverty.
"And yet we have the resources in this world to guarantee each person a decent life. In the implementation of the MDGs, despite the minimal resources injected by the wealthy nations, we managed by prioritizing our spending to put more children in school than ever before in history. We managed to pull more than 40% of the worlds people out of extreme poverty," he said.
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