‘Africa’s raw materials must create jobs, value at home’- President Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has argued that reparatory justice must include reforms to the global economic system that continues to leave African countries exporting raw materials while value, industries and jobs are created elsewhere.

Addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly, President Mahama said the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade cannot be separated from the economic structures that continue to shape relations between Africa and the developed world.

He said Ghana’s push for reparatory justice is therefore not limited to compensation or recognition of historical wrongs.
“Real repair demands structural transformation” he stressed.

STRUCTURAL ECONOMIC REFORM
President Mahama identified what he described as unfair global trade, predatory resource extraction, discriminatory credit ratings and unsustainable debt burdens among the structural issues requiring attention.

He also criticised the continued export of raw materials from Africa without adequate value addition on the continent.

VALUE ADDITION, JOB CREATION
“The continued export of raw materials from Africa, while real value addition and job creation occur elsewhere,”

The President said addressing this imbalance should form part of a broader effort to secure economic justice for Africa and people of African descent.

He said the adoption of Ghana-sponsored UN Resolution 80/250 represented an important step in acknowledging the historical injustice, but stressed that recognition alone would not constitute meaningful repair.

“That resolution was not a mere gesture” he observed.

GLOBAL REPARATORY JUSTICE DEBATE
President Mahama also welcomed the growing international conversation on reparatory justice, citing positive engagements from countries including the Netherlands, Germany and France.

He maintained that the debate must now focus on addressing the structural inequalities that have persisted long after the formal end of the transatlantic slave trade.

The President’s position places economic transformation, value addition and job creation in Africa at the centre of Ghana’s broader reparatory justice agenda.