President John Dramani Mahama has criticised the global financial system for placing African countries at a disadvantage, arguing that the continent must move away from dependence on foreign aid and focus on industrialisation, value addition and access to affordable capital.
Speaking at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London, President Mahama told investors, international lenders and policymakers that African countries continued to face disproportionately high borrowing costs compared with their Western counterparts.
“The global order is rigged against Africa. I have always maintained that position,” he said.
President Mahama noted that African countries sometimes borrowed at interest rates up to eight times higher than those paid by Western nations, including when seeking funds to address the effects of climate change, despite contributing relatively little to the problem.
“We borrow at eight times the interest rates at which Western nations borrow. Sometimes, we borrow to ameliorate the effects of climate change, which we did not create,” he stated.
He argued that the continent needed a new approach to economic development as official development assistance from traditional donor countries continued to decline. According to him, African governments could no longer depend on foreign aid as a long-term solution to their development challenges.
“The response to dwindling aid is not to learn how to improve your begging skills,” President Mahama said, urging African countries to build more resilient and sustainable economies.
Using Ghana as an example, he disclosed that the withdrawal of funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had cost the country approximately US$154 million annually. Of that amount, about US$74 million had previously supported critical health interventions, including HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment.
President Mahama said the funding shortfall had pushed Ghana to reconsider how it mobilised domestic resources and protected essential public services.
He cited the Accra Reset initiative, which was initially designed to help safeguard social spending amid declining external support but has since evolved into a broader framework for economic governance and self-reliance across the Global South.
The President maintained that Africa’s response to changing global funding conditions must involve strengthening domestic industries, processing more of its raw materials locally and creating an economic environment that attracts investment on fairer terms.
He also emphasised that calls for greater economic independence among countries in the Global South were not intended to create hostility towards Western nations, but reflected the need for a more equitable international financial system.
President Mahama is expected to assume the chairmanship of the African Union in January 2027.
