President John Mahama has called for a new paradigm of cooperation between Africa and Japan, urging that partnerships must go beyond aid and handouts to real trade and investment.

Speaking at a private-public business dialogue at the ongoing 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IX) on Thursday, he said Africa is ready to match Japan’s technology with its youthful population to drive transformation.

“I don’t think that we walk away from TICAD 9, we wave a magic wand, and everything happens. While we expect that we move from just handouts and ODA to trade and investment with our Japanese counterparts, there is also an obligation on us, as leaders of Africa, to create the kind of space that makes it possible,” he stated.

President Mahama stressed that Africa must put its house in order.

“We need governance reform. We need to reduce corruption, and we must have accountable governance. Our people must feel that their resources are being put to good use.

"We must make sure that our economies are stable and predictable, so that if a Japanese investor wants to come and invest or partner with our young people in the service industry or in industry or FinTech or whatever, he knows that he has a stable, predictable environment to be able to make that investment, and that he’s able to repatriate his profit if he’s able to make that profit.”

The President recalled earlier commitments made at the last TICAD summit.

“TICAD 8 pledged $30 billion for investment in Africa. I’d like to see what the audit of that would be, how much went into what? But I believe that the environment in Africa is better known at TICAD 9 than it was in TICAD 8, because now we have the African continental free trade area.

"We have the beginning of a basis to bring the continent together. Be able to set up in one country, but have a market of 1.4 billion people, instead of a market of 33 million people in Ghana. And so we have a better platform today after TICAD 9 than we had after TICAD 8.”

He also emphasised the infrastructure gap that continues to hinder intra-African trade.

“While the African Continental Free Trade Area is a game changer, we still need to put in the infrastructure to be able to trade amongst ourselves. If I want to export something from Ghana to Kenya, tariff-free, duty-free, even though we’ve signed the protocols, it’s most likely that I’ll put it on a boat.

"That boat will go to Europe before it comes back to Africa and Kenya. And so my freight costs are going to be higher. And so the savings that I make in terms of being able to export duty-free, tariff-free, are consumed by extra freight charges.”

President Mahama underscored the need for Africa to leverage its youthful population alongside Japan’s technological edge.

“I believe that Japan has the innovation, Japan has the technology. Africa has natural resources. Africa has the young, innovative people, and if TICAD brings those two factors together, I believe that it would have been worth our while staying in Yokohama for three days.”