President John Dramani Mahama is urging investors to turn their attention to Africa and Ghana in particular because the area has the right climate for investments.
“I speak as an African leader and as President of Ghana. Our message is simple: Africa is investable, and Ghana is your reliable gateway to the continent. The continent is the world’s most dynamic emerging market.
“We are 1.4 billion people today–young, fast-urbanising, digitally connected–and by 2030, Africa’s cities will host more than 700 million consumers,” President Mahama stated.
He made this call when he delivered the keynote address at the 8th Africa-Singapore Business Forum in Singapore on Tuesday.
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The forum is on the theme “Bridging Capabilities, Charting Sustainable Growth.”
Africa, President Mahama stressed, has the largest free trade area in the world by numbers in the Africa Continental Free Trade Area with a US$3.4 trillion market, holds vast renewable energy potential and is already a global leader in mobile money and fintech adoption.
“This is a market ready for scaled solutions. Yet this opportunity must be matched with capital at the right price and with the right instruments,” President Mahama noted.
In the face of these potentials, President Mahama who is the African Union Champion on Financial Institutions, said the current global financial architecture remains inequitable for low- and middle-income countries as Africa faces an annual financing gap estimated at US$1.3 trillion.
Infrastructure needs alone, President Mahama said, run between US$181 and US$221 billion per year through 2030, and the climate finance gap is about $213 billion annually.
As part of measures to address this bottleneck, he mentioned that steps were being taken to build an African financial system that works for Africa; accelerate the African Monetary Institute as a precursor to the African Central Bank, and link 10 major stock exchanges through the African Exchanges Linkage Project to enhance liquidity.
He also noted that Pan-African Payment and Settlement System was being scaled up to enable businesses to settle cross-border trade in local currencies.
“This is where Singapore’s strengths can be catalytic. Singapore stands at the nexus of global finance, fintech, logistics and green innovation. Your excellence in project preparation, blended finance, risk management, standards and dispute resolution is precisely what African projects need to move from pipeline to bankable to build.”
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As host of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, President Mahama said Ghana sits at the heart of the US$3.4 trillion single market.
“Through ECOWAS, we connect you to more than 400 million consumers in West Africa. We offer political stability, a rules-based environment, a double taxation agreement with Singapore in force since 2019, and a growing base of Singaporean investors–69 companies registered with cumulative investments exceeding US$2 billion.
“Ghana is, therefore, a trusted entry point to scale across the continent. We know credibility is earned. We are pursuing a deliberate national reset: stabilising the macroeconomy, restoring confidence and reforming how we do business,” President Mahama stressed.
President Mahama is in the Asian country on a three-day state visit following his successful participation at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-9).