News:
H.E. Filipe Jacinto Nyusi
May 26, 2022
Mozambican President H.E. Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, has revealed that the regional integration of Africa and its economic liberation remain high on the agenda of leaders at various fora.
Addressing Ghana’s Parliament, Mr Nyusi who is on a four-day official visit to Ghana said the political liberation of the continent would mean nothing if it continue to tie it’s development apron to external aid.
“The struggle for the liberation of Africa of which Ghana was one of its leaders was not only for political liberation, the call by Kwame Nkrumah that African must unite in his book ‘Africa Unite’ were based on the wisdom and vision that our political independence will be nothing if we remain independent under external aid”
The economic liberation, the regional integration of Africa remains a central topic and is a topic of priorities of our cooperation at bilateral and regional levels such as South African Development Community, Economic Community of West African States, the East Africa Community, and at the continental level at the African Union (AU), he stated.
Mr Nyusi’s assurances come on the day the continent was observing the AU Day; a day set aside by the Union to commemorate the formation of the foundation of the Organisation of Africa Unity, now AU.
The organisation was intended to champion the liberation of Africa which was largely under colonial rule and to ultimately unite the continent.
It was in the context of this commitment that President Nyusi said he signed various cooperation agreements with Ghana on the first day of his visit.
The agreements, President Nyusi said, have strong component of cooperation in different sectors of the economy such as agriculture, industry, trade, tourism, mineral resources, and science and technology.
Ghana, he said, has valuable experience in putting appropriate legal frameworks to regulate its extractive industry, an experience he said the South African country would want to tap into.
“We will like to benefit from the good experience of Ghana in establishing favorable legal framework that will allow us a sustainable management of resources like gold, oil and gas, and how to maximize the local content to empower our private sector,” he said.
Commending President Nyusi, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin said unity of purpose among African countries holds the key to propelling the continent to a greater height.
“For Africa to develop, this is the way to go. We need to look within ourselves, acknowledge and appreciate our values, work together and market those values to the good people of the world”, Mr Bagbin entreated.
Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, on behalf of the Minority said the visit should rekindle the need for African countries to begin to put in place mechanisms to trade more within themselves.
“We as African people must learn to trade more within because it is the only way our independence will be meaningful. So long as we continue to rely on only political independence and not being able to liberate ourselves economically, the challenges that confront us today will continue to face us,” Alhaji Muntaka, MP, Asawase said.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on his part said there would be the need for exchange of valuable lessons between the two countries in the areas of cotton production, poultry farming, cashew nut and sugarcane farming; areas Mozambique is doing well.
“In industry Mozambique produces food beverages, fertilizers, soap, textiles, cement, glass, and tobacco. Our textile industry today is gone. Mozambique is closer to China and in terms of dumping industrial products, their domestic production could be more at risk than Ghana, yet they have developed internal mechanisms to forestall it. How have they done that? How have they managed to protect their local industries? There are useful lesson there to be learnt,” Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu observed.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com