President Akufo-Addo says Africa must find diverse ways of funding its developmental programmes. 

According to the president, the continent’s reliance on foreign capital markets has come at a great cost. 

This, he said must be addressed urgently to ameliorate the current economic crisis the region faces. 

In his keynote address at the 30th AGM of the African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank), President Akufo-Addo said it is important for Africans to build their indigenous financial institutions in order to achieve economic growth on Monday. 

“Unless we have strong financial institutions we are not going to develop, we have learnt over the decades that relying on foreign capital is both risky and costly.”

“It has resulted in huge financial leakages to a high cost of default-driven borrowing rates and interest payments and undermined the growth of our financial institution’s domestic resource mobilization and private sector development,” President Akufo-Addo said.

President Akufo-Addo has thus outlined some interventions that African leaders should embrace to overcome the current economic challenges. 

He emphasised the importance of capitalization and effective coordination with the African Union.

“There is capital and effective coordination with the African Union. Despite constant efforts made by many African governments during an extremely economic global operating environment, our economic financing institutions remain highly under-capitalised,” the President noted.

Afreximbank, a key player in facilitating trade and economic development in Africa, has taken a significant step by providing $10 billion in funding for the establishment of an adjustment fund.