Ghana’s Vice-President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has called for greater African ownership of the continent’s development at the inaugural Africa Mindset Reset Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.
Speaking at the two-day forum on Tuesday, she said African countries needed to move beyond implementing solutions designed elsewhere and build the capacity, institutions and expertise required to address their own challenges.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang took part in a high-level discussion with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and former South African President Thabo Mbeki.
She also called for greater investment in research grounded in African realities, saying education should equip young people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to help shape the continent’s future.
The forum, organised by the African School of Governance, is focused on governance, institutional development and the ability of African countries to turn policies and ambitions into practical results.
The gathering, being held at the Kigali Convention Centre on 25 and 26 August, has brought together political leaders, policymakers, academics, business figures and civil society representatives to discuss how Africa can take greater ownership of its development.
The discussions have also examined bureaucratic barriers that hinder progress and the need for institutions and policies that improve people’s lives, particularly those with fewer opportunities.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang said the principles of Pan-Africanism, including the belief that Africans can work together to determine their own future, should remain central to the continent’s development.
