Thirty percent of Africa’s sovereign reserves should be invested locally – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has proposed that 30 per cent of Africa’s sovereign reserves held in foreign banks be invested in the continent’s financial institutions.

On the relevance of investing in the continent’s financial institutions, he enumerated the critical role the AfDB and Afreximbank played in alleviating the plight of the people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A champion of reforms of the global financial architecture, President Nana Akufo-Addo insisted there ought to be a mechanism for monitoring how monies being invested in the continent’s banks were used.

The President tasked the leaders to work together to develop a robust global financial architecture that placed African development priorities at the centre of common efforts to deal with common burdens.

Reform of the global financial architecture should also prioritise stemming illicit financial flows from Africa.

The concept note underpinning the Presidential Dialogue hinges on the fact that the changing global economic landscape has underlined the need to expedite the establishment of the AU financial institutions and to revise the legal instruments establishing them.

As Africa seeks to accelerate the transformation journey to enable its countries and people to realise their full economic potential, the authorities say this requires a global financial system that adequately meets the people’s needs and harnesses the opportunities that the continent’s natural and human capital offer.