President John Mahama has stressed that Africa cannot unlock its growth potential without bold governance reforms that guarantee stability, accountability, and predictability.

Speaking at a private-public business dialogue at the ongoing 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IX) in Yokohama on Thursday, Mahama declared that no investor would risk capital in an environment plagued by corruption and instability.

“Well, I don’t think that we walk away from TICAD 9, we wave a magic wand, and everything happens,” he said.

“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 argued that the first step is governance reform.

“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,” he stated.

President Mahama explained that investors look for certainty before committing to Africa’s markets.

“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 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.”

Turning to promises made at previous summits, President Mahama questioned the follow-through. “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?” he asked.

He, however, noted that Africa is now on a stronger platform than at the time of TICAD 8.

“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.”

Yet, he warned that infrastructure gaps are still a major barrier to realising this potential.

“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 to 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 concluded with optimism about Africa-Japan cooperation.

“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.”