Executive Vice President Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi remarks at Heads of State and Government Dialogue on Global Financial Architecture Reforms

Your Excellencies and distinguished guests.

With your permission, I would like to stand on existing protocols and thank you all sincerely for your honored presence this morning.

Let me begin by expressing my special gratitude to the President of my beloved country – His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo – for convening us all here today on such an important and interconnected set of topics.

Over the past three years, it has become abundantly clear that Africa has to position itself strategically in the Global Financial Architecture. We have to own the narrative on what works for our continent. The late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, whose statue will be unveiled here tomorrow, stated aptly that: “No nation has the right to make decisions for another nation; no people for another people.”

We are currently operating in a global financial system that was created in the 1940s to address the challenges of that time. The world is finally rethinking how to make this system a better fit for today’s complexities.

Your Excellencies, you have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure that the global financial system that emerges from the current reform process effectively supports our economic transformation, makes space for our rapidly growing market, and enables all of you to lay the foundation for a more prosperous future for every African.

Africa is pushing for more concessional finance, a fairer debt framework, a more inclusive global tax system, and more climate finance and investment to help chart a green industrialization path for the continent.

When we talk about the global financial architecture, we often focus on international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF. These institutions are a critical part of the financial system we need, but alone they cannot provide the resources we need to meet the ambitions of Agenda 2063.

We have well established and well-respected African multilateral financial institutions, that have been working for and with us in good times and bad. I see many of their leaders in the room today.  Lady and Gentlemen, your institutions are essential for our economic transformation. As such, you must be an integral part of our discourse on the global financial architecture. We have already seen some exciting innovations from AFC, AfreximBank and most recently with the AfDB’s subordinated hybrid capital notes.

The stronger and more innovative you are, the more you will be able to take advantage of the rapid reforms that we hope will happen globally to support our development.

The African Center for Economic Transformation, in partnership with 22 other African Policy Institutes, is working to support our national governments and regional institutions with analysis and advice on the key issues that should make up Africa’s Agenda for Global Financial Architecture Reform. As a group, we have collaborated closely with UNECA and the African Union Commission who have worked with member states to drive this agenda.

We will continue to engage civil society organizations worldwide to ensure Africa’s priorities are central to advocacy on global financial architecture reform.

There has been excellent engagement and ownership at the Ministers of Finance level, and today we have the honor to be here with you, our Heads of State and Government, to hear your ideas, reactions, and advice on the way forward so that the global system can start to truly deliver for Africa.

Your Excellencies

With your actions and advice today, you are creating a new trajectory for how we engage with the world. As policy institutes, we stand ready to work with you and help move Africa’s agenda forward in service of our continent and people.

We thank you for your time today and wish you fruitful and successful deliberations in the days to come.

Watch the full Speech below