“If we stop being beggars and start spending African money on the continent, Africa won’t need respect from anyone, we’ll get the respect we deserve. If we let it succeed as it deserves, respect will follow. come after it,” Mr Akufo-Addo said at the opening of the US-Africa summit in Washington on Tuesday.
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has urged African countries to stop “begging” the West in order to win the respect of the world and change bad perceptions on the continent.
Mr Akufo-Addo called for greater solidarity among Africans to address common aspirations.
Nana Akufo-Addo’s comments came on the day the IMF agreed to provide Ghana with a $3bn (£2.4bn) loan to help ease the West African nation’s unprecedented recession.
Already saddled with debt, Ghana is facing historic inflation of more than 40 percent and the value of its currency, the cedes, has plummeted, with economic difficulties worsened since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Nearly 50 African leaders and representatives are in Washington, D.C., for a key summit hosted by President Biden.
It is at the centre of a major effort to reinvigorate and improve U.S. relations with African countries, whose ties to China and Russia are increasingly in the spotlight.