President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the unwillingness of rich nations to engage in equitable and fair-trading practices has left Africa – a continent with vast mineral resources and the reason for the wealth of many developed nations – poor.

Speaking at the 74th  session of the UN General Assembly in the United States, the President said the battle for prosperity in Africa would have been much easier had developed nations ‘played fair’.

“It should not be lost on anyone that the minerals, on which the world depends to move industry and manufacturing, are mostly available in Africa, and yet, we, who own these fundamental resources by birth right, have remained poor, whilst our minerals have brought vast wealth to nations and peoples outside our continent.”

Africa supplies up to 31 percent of the world’s demand for bauxite, cobalt, gold, manganese, phosphate and uranium.  Additionally, it supplies 57 percent of the world’s need for chromium and diamonds, and the hydrocarbon deposits are immense. The continent also produces 12 percent of the world’s oil and has about 8 percent of reserves.

However, despite being so richly endowed, and despite the mining boom of the past decade, Africa has drawn little benefit from this mineral wealth and remains one the poorest continents on the globe.

President Akufo-Addo reminded the UN General Assembly of Africa’s contribution to the wealth of developed nations but pointed out that “not only do we not get a fair share of the wealth once extracted, our lands, our environment, our oceans, are often left devastated by the process, and the competition to gain control over these minerals has also often led to insecurity in our countries.”

He said the youth of Ghana and Africa, have demonstrated their ingenuity and innovative prowess, the battle for prosperity on the continent will be easier if trade practices were seen to be more equitable and fairer.

“The question always remains whether the rich nations are prepared for an equitable and fair-trading order. It appears that they are not, and we have, thus, to continue to fight for a fairer world economic order,” he stated.