The global order is rigged against Africa - Mahama raises concerns

President John Dramani Mahama has told global financiers and policymakers that Africa’s answer to declining Western aid is not “better begging skills,” but industrial value addition, a lower cost of capital, and sovereign economic ownership.

In a direct address to institutional investors, multilateral lenders, and international policymakers at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London, President Mahama delivered a firm critique of the global financial architecture. He called for a decisive transition from declining foreign aid to equitable capital access and domestic industrialization.

President Mahama, who assumes the role of African Union (AU) Chairperson in January 2027, cautioned that international capital markets penalize African economies with an unjustified risk premium. He noted that African sovereigns borrow at interest rates up to eight times higher than their Western peers.

“The global order is rigged against Africa. I have always maintained that position,” President Mahama told delegates.

“We borrow at eight times the interest rates at which Western nations borrow. Sometimes, we borrow to ameliorate the effects of climate change, which we did not create.”

President Mahama framed the advocacy for a stronger, more autonomous Global South not as an adversarial posture toward the West, but as a commercial and developmental imperative spurred by structural declines in Official Development Assistance (ODA).

Addressing global financiers, he dismissed the viability of relying perpetually on donors. “The response to dwindling aid is not to learn how to improve your begging skills,” Mahama said.

“You need to respond differently by becoming more resilient and more sustainable.” He explained how shifts in external funding served as a wake-up call for domestic resource mobilization. Using Ghana as a case study, he noted that the withdrawal of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding cost the country about US$154 million annually, including US$74 million previously allocated to critical health interventions such as HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment. In response, the country initiated the ‘Accra Reset’—an intervention originally designed to protect social spending that has since matured into a comprehensive framework for economic governance and self-reliance across the Global South.

“You cannot own the outcome when you are not part of the decision-making,” he stated. “We must have some control.” For the international business community, Mahama outlined a structural policy shift across the continent: moving away from raw commodity exports toward localized value addition, processing, and manufacturing.

He highlighted this pivot both as a necessity to curb youth unemployment and as a prime entry point for long-term private capital, foreign direct investment (FDI), and joint ventures.

“We cannot continue forever as exporters of raw materials to the rest of the world and consumers of finished products,” Mahama noted.

“We must bring part of that processing and value addition into Africa to create jobs for our young people.” Mahama stressed that Africa is not seeking an isolationist pivot, but rather commercial relationships underpinned by equity, co-ownership, and localized processing capacity.