Former President John Dramani Mahama has called on African leaders to resist allowing the continent's debt burden to compromise its dignity or stall its development.

Speaking at the African Union's Debt Conference in Lome, Togo, the former Ghanaian leader stressed that Africa must move beyond survival mode and instead channel its debts into sustainable progress. "Our goal is not just to reduce our debts, it is to transform our economy.

Debts must not erode our dignity or delay our development.

It must finance opportunity and lay the foundation for intergenerational progress," Mahama asserted.