Ghana lost about 70 million dollars in the first half of the year due to a fall in remittances from Ghanaians in the diaspora as a result of the global economic downturn, Vice-President John Mahama has said.

Speaking at a roundtable on the political dimensions of the world economic crisis from an African perspective in Accra Tuesday with the Club of Madrid, Mr. Mahama said in spite of its daunting challenges, the crisis could position Africa as the next investment destination.

The regional meeting is the fourth to be organised by the Club of Madrid, the world's largest forum of former Heads of State dedicated to strengthening democratic values around the world.

It was attended by former Presidents John Kufuor of Ghana; Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria; Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, and Percival Patterson, former Prime Minister of Jamaica.

The meeting, which discussed the impact of the crisis on the continent as well as key drivers of change to help reverse the negative effects on African economies, was expected to come out with recommendations to feed into discussions at the Club's meeting next week in Madrid, Spain.

Vice-President Mahama said the crisis was threatening the gains made by Africa in the constitutional and democratic milieu and even the modest achievements on the economic front: "Development partners' commitments to scale up development assistance and even the actual disbursement of resources promised before the global crisis have seriously lagged in a situation where the same partners are understandably pre-occupied with addressing their own domestic and regional economic and social problems."

"But there is opportunity in the midst of this crisis," he stressed, saying, Africa should pursue a stronger drive for integration at the sub-regional and continental levels. "We must remove barriers to allow for the free movement of goods and services."

He said "We must also invest in human resources so that we can move the continent to another level."

The Vice-President said in the wake of the global recession, the time had come for the rest of the world to engage Africa on a realistic basis and called for investments in infrastructural development.

"As we in Ghana have shown, many African nations remain committed to the pursuit of our pre-global financial crisis agenda to deepen democratic governance and promote human rights."

Mr. Mahama expressed the hope that deliberations of the Club of Madrid meeting would help find effective means by which Africa could strengthen development partnerships, deepen democratic governance and - sustain its social protection and poverty reduction programmes, even in the face of the challenges in the current unfavourable global climate.

Former President Mkapa said there was no doubt that unless handled appropriately; the crisis could make Africa poorer and the Millennium Development Goals unattainable.


Source: The Ghanaian Times