President John Dramani Mahama, the African Union champion of African financial Institutions, has hinted that he is leading advocacy for the repatriation of and investment of part of Africa’s “huge foreign reserves” in African Financial Institutions.
According to him, most of these foreign reserves are by colonial construct held in Western financial institutions and, in most cases, generate no interest.
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in its 2023 African Trade Report for 2021 said Africa’s combined foreign exchange reserve stood at $410.9 billion.
“If 30 per cent of these reserves were repatriated and invested in our own financial institutions, it would create an immense pool of wealth that could drive rapid infrastructural expansion and economic growth,” President Mahama stated.
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He made this estimation in Zambia on Thursday when he addressed the legislative assembly of the Southern African country on his three-day state visit.
No African country, said President Mahama, could survive in isolation, hence the need to build regional prosperity platforms — shared manufacturing zones, integrated energy grids, and digital infrastructure.
President Mahama noted that too many African countries remain trapped in dependency, a situation that undermines their genuine sovereignty.
In his view, the dependency on external actors for security choices; dependency on donors for health and education systems; and dependency on suppliers of critical minerals while capturing little or no value was not in Africa’s interest.
It is for this reason he is courting the support of the continent for the Accra Reset Initiative and the urgent need for Africa to redefine its development trajectory.
The Accra Reset, he explained, advocated the forging of new partnerships to transform global systems that have been rigged against Africa and much of the global south over the years.
“The Accra Reset does not seek to disrupt global partnerships. We must reset the narrative through unity of action, self-reliance, and the leveraging of our comparative advantages for industrial growth and economic transformation,” he stated.
“We demand a redesign of outdated governance systems, including greater representation in global institutions such as the UN Security Council. We are calling for a resetting of the global financial system that keeps Africa in poverty and debt.”
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He stressed that while countries on the continent work collectively to achieve those objectives much depended on how they acted locally because “leadership is fundamental to achieving the Accra Reset’s goals”.
He told the Zambian lawmakers that his administration had been guided by a clear, pragmatic Reset Agenda focused on economic recovery, macroeconomic stability, job creation, and inclusive growth, anchored in fiscal discipline, productive investment, good governance, and strengthened regional cooperation.
“We have chosen execution over excuses. We have reduced the size of government to 58 ministers and deputy ministers, including regional ministers. We are digitalising public services to fight corruption. We are investing in skills for the future–digital, green, and industrial skills. We have restructured debt to invest in people, not just to service loans.
This is what Resetting Ghana means, and it is delivering results,” he touted.
He reported that since then, inflation had declined from 23.4 per cent at the end of 2024 to 3.8 per cent in January 2026, and the Ghana cedi appreciating by 32 per cent and ranking among the five best-performing currencies in 2025.
To achieve economic transformation, President said Africa must not be ashamed to leverage its comparative advantage in natural resources.
“Africa must exercise greater sovereignty over its natural resources if it is to create prosperity for its people. The era of parceling out large-scale concessions to speculators who then flip them for huge profits must end. We have the know-how; the technology and capital are available,” he emphasised.