Ghana pushes reparations financing agenda - Focus extends beyond compensation to restitution, development

Ghana’s Presidential Special Envoy for Reparations, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has said the country has begun positioning reparations as a wider economic and financial issue, with discussions extending beyond direct monetary compensation to restitution, development financing and the role of institutions that benefited from the transatlantic slave trade.

Mr Spio-Garbrah’s appointment as Special Envoy had provided a dedicated presidential platform for coordinating Ghana’s work on the issue.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic last Wednesday, he disclosed that Ghana’s approach had been shaped by President John Dramani Mahama’s role as the African Union’s Champion for Reparations, and his decision to take the issue to the United Nations, where Ghana had helped advance an international resolution on reparatory justice.