He made the remarks during the opening of the US-Africa Leaders' Summit in Washington DC. Several African leaders are attending the summit to discuss collaborations with the West.
Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo has said that African countries must drop the habit of "begging" the West if the continent is to gain global respect and rich perceptions about it.
Nana Akufo-Addo at the US-Africa Leaders' Summit 2022
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According to Akufo-Addo, Africans need to be more selfish with their expenditure outside the continent, and more generous within to elevate their resource reserves.
"If we stop being beggars and spend African money inside the continent, Africa will not need to ask for respect from anyone, we will get the respect we deserve. If we make it prosperous as it should be, respect will follow," he said.
He urged greater solidarity among African countries to adress similar aspirations, saying that to the outside world, Africa is one people.
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“Africans are more resilient outside the continent than inside. We must bear in mind that to the outside world, [there’s] nothing like Nigeria, Ghana or Kenya, we are simply Africans. Our destiny as people depends on each other,” he said.
He said that the continent is well endowed with resources like skills and manpower but needs organised political willpower to make "Africa work".
The Ghanaian President has just come into a loan of $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund to get the country out of an unprecendented economic crisis.
African leaders are currently in Washington in talks about cooperation with America amid budding Chinese and Russian influence in Africa.
