Former President John Dramani Mahama has advocated the reintroduction of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to help Africa deal with its rising public debts. He said many African countries, including Ghana have reached debt distressed levels with debt to GDP ratio ranging between 70 and 80%, hence, the advocacy to offer countries some fiscal space to make investments in critical states such as education and health.
Mr. Mahama was speaking at the 24th African Business Conference organized by the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts in the US. He also called for support towards self-reliance for key strategic commodities and supplies such as rice, tomatoes, onions, and vegetable oil.
According to Mr. Mahama, Africa has a comparative advantage in those areas. He said it is unfortunate that the Continent continues to import such commodities when there are favourable conditions to produce them.
In Mr Mahama’s view, intra-African trade must be encouraged on the Continent to boost trade and promote self-reliance.
The former President said most African countries have been hard hit by the Russia-Ukraine war as it has reduced Russian and Ukrainian exports of crucial commodities such as wheat, sunflower oil, and corn.
It has also affected the cost of fuel, prices of fertilizer, and other key agricultural inputs.
He said Africa must take greater control of the trade and processing of its natural resources like cocoa, and minerals and build a stronger capacity to respond to global energy shocks stemming from situations such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict.