\u201cAfrica is rising,\u201d Ghana\u2019s President, John Dramani Mahama, has said in Accra.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince 2005, poverty on the African continent has declined faster than it did between 1990 and 2005,\u201d he said. \u201cAfrica\u2019s economies are the second fastest growing in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the new Chairman of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), \u201cThe continent\u2019s GDP is predicted to grow by an average of 5.5% this year alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
While celebrating the continent\u2019s economic boom, the Ghanaian leader was quick to warn delegates at a Pan-African Conference on Inequalities in Ghana\u2019s Capital, Accra, that Africa\u2019s growth could soon face sustainability challenges.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201c\u2026What we are now realizing is that this growth will not be sustainable unless we properly address the issue of wealth inequality in our societies and ensure that this growth we are experiencing is inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told delegates that in lower\u2010middle income and middle-income nations such as those in Africa, \u201cinequality is more visible as a result of an increasing middle class with growing disposable income and visible consumption. We must ensure that the fruits of our success are shared and enjoyed by as many of our citizens as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Africa\u2019s Growth Indicators<\/strong><\/p>\n President Mahama\u2019s comments about \u201cAfrica is rising\u201d confirm existing figures which show that, for instance, Sub-Saharan Africa has made huge economic and social strides over the last ten years.<\/p>\n For example, Malaria deaths in some of the hardest-hit nations within the region have reduced by 30% and HIV infections by up to 74%. Again, life expectancy across the African Continent is up by some 10%. At the same time, child mortality rates in many nations on the Continent have declined sharply.<\/p>\n In the last few years, various international assessments have credited Africa\u2019s changing circumstances to a booming economy. For example, The Economist, a highly regarded International Magazine, recently said this about Africa: \u201cReal income per person has increased by more than 30%, whereas in the previous 20 years it shrank by nearly 10%. Africa is the world\u2019s fastest-growing continent at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts say, in the next decade, Africa\u2019s GDP could leap by an average of 6% a year, thanks largely to foreign direct investment, which has moved from $15 billion in 2002 to $37 billion in 2006 and $46 billion in 2012.<\/p>\n While many local and international economists agree that sustainable economic growth in Africa would help, in the long-term, to put the Continent among the list of elite continents where a vast majority citizens live decent economic and social lives, some analysts insist that shocking levels of corruption, bad governance and never-ending conflicts, remain some of the main factors undermining Africa\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n Challenges still linger in critical areas<\/strong><\/p>\n Experts say such factors \u2013 corruption, bad governance and never-ending conflicts \u2013 were the banana peels that derailed Africa\u2019s train of economic boom in previous decades.<\/p>\n Apparently, President Mahama was minded by such threats to Africa\u2019s progress when he spoke on Monday. \u201cIf Africa\u2019s fortunes are indeed changing, then that prosperity must be reflected in all of its citizens, not just the wealthy and the privileged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that \u201cfor far too long on the African continent, only a minority of people benefitted from the resources of our land. For far too long, our people have been were placated with promises of a better future. It\u2019s time to make good on those promises.\u201d<\/p>\n For a continent seeing an influx of major multi-national companies in consumables especially, the Ghanaian President warned against wholesale use of such Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) as measure the growth in African societies.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we are now realizing is that we cannot follow the same development paradigm of nations in the so-called developed world. We cannot use the same indexes to either influence or measure the growth of our societies,\u201d he cautioned.<\/p>\n Instead, he said, African must find a \u201cway to infuse our individual, indigenous value systems into\u201d this the growing culture of capitalism and consumption on the continent.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a time on the African continent, and that was not so long ago, that the worth of an individual was measured by his or her contribution to their village, clan or country,\u201d President Mahama said. \u201cThese days, the worth of an individual is measured by his or her finances, and physical possessions, like homes, luxury vehicles and jewellery.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact is that already in the Western world, this type of consumption has proven itself to be a fatal disease of the individual spirit, a disease that can and will erode the very fabric of society by shattering the core values of community. And by following suit in this disposable culture of consumption, we in Africa run the risk of disposing the very culture, values and principles that have sustained us and enabled us to survive as a people.\u201d<\/p>\n His comments came some two years after reports of yawning inequality in North Africa sparked a wave of street protests that eventually caused governments in three different countries to fall \u2013 in what became known as the Arab Spring.<\/p>\n The Arab Spring<\/strong><\/p>\n In February 2011, a deluge of street protests forced Egyptian strongman, Hosni Mubarak, to step down as President.<\/p>\n A month earlier, Tunisia\u2019s President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled his country after weeks of sustained mass protests crystallized into a victory for people power over a regime considered to be one of the Arab world\u2019s most oppressive.<\/p>\n Later that year, similar protests forced Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, de facto ruler of Libya for 42 years, out of office.<\/p>\n The Libyan uprising, which drew inspiration from events in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, began in February 2011. Thousands of people died as Libyan authorities tried to putdown the revolt.<\/p>\n In October 2011, Gaddafi \u2013 who ruled Libya from 1969 until August 2011 \u2013 was killed by forces loyal to the transitional government that took over administration of the country after the fall of the 69-year-old\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n The former strongman was reportedly found hiding in a drain just outside his hometown of Sirte, where he and others had sought refuge after their convoy was hit by a NATO airstrike as it attempted to escape.<\/p>\n Social Protection programs and inequalities<\/strong><\/p>\n In his speech on Monday, President Mahama spoke of the urgent need to bridge the inequality gap in Africa and highlighted \u201cSocial protection \u2026 as being most effective in reducing poverty and narrowing the inequality gap.\u201d<\/p>\n Citing successes recorded by Ghana through her Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme (LEAP), President Mahama said Social Protection initiatives ensure \u201cmore equitable distribution of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Ghana, he said, was celebrated with 14 other countries for achieving the MDG target on reduction of hunger and malnutrition well in advance of target date of 2015.<\/p>\n LEAP provides support to the extreme poor and most vulnerable groups in Ghana, including the elderly aged 65 and above, as well as persons with disability. It also supports orphans and other vulnerable persons.<\/p>\n Attributing Ghana\u2019s successes in reducing poverty and hunger partly to LEAP, President Mahama said: \u201cIn 2013, LEAP was being administered to 74,000 families in 100 out of 213 districts in all ten regions of Ghana. We are set to increase the number of beneficiary households to 150,000 by close of 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLEAP has had a positive impact on local economic growth,\u201d he said. \u201cBeneficiaries spend about 80 percent of their income on the local economy.\u201d<\/p>\n President Mahama said every 1 Ghana cedis transferred to a beneficiary \u201chas the potential of increasing the local economy by GH2.50. It has enabled the poorest families better meet their basic needs, prioritise their health, enroll their children in school, improve school attendance, increase savings and work to pull themselves out of poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition to cash transfers, LEAP families are entitled to free health insurance under Government\u2019s national health Insurance Scheme,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Richard Dela Sky\/Citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cAfrica is rising,\u201d Ghana\u2019s President, John Dramani Mahama, has said in Accra. \u201cSince 2005, poverty on the African continent has declined faster than it did between 1990 and 2005,\u201d he said. \u201cAfrica\u2019s economies are the second fastest growing in the world.\u201d According to the new Chairman of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[43,38,17],"class_list":["post-15528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-foresight-medical-center","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-wassa-akropong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}