Vice-President Kashim Shettima has advocated home-grown solutions to Africa’s economic problems.
Mr Shettima restated the need for innovative approaches for growth, development, and prosperity on the continent. He stated this during the High-level Accra Reset Initiative meeting held on the margins of the ongoing 2026 World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Mr Shettima welcomed the vision of the Accra Reset, describing the initiative as a bold reimagining of Africa’s shared future built through African-led cooperation and rooted in sovereignty and self-definition.
He also said that the initiative was a call to action as well as a call to reset the mindset of the African nation, “from dependency to dignity, from aid to investment, from rhetoric to results.
He stated that it was only by building domestic productive capacity that African nations could convert their population and natural talents into real, resilient wealth.
The vice-president said instead of expecting prosperity to be parachuted in, “it must be home-grown and earned.”
Mr Shettima, who cited Nigeria, where the Dangote Refinery is gradually turning the nation into a major fuel exporter, as an example, pointed out that Africa could only rise when countries on the continent build.
The vice-president underscored the benefits of modular factories, artificial intelligence, and robotics. According to him, Africa can industrialise faster in the 21st century than ever before.
Mr Shettima said the era when the continent was “known only for what it digs or grows” is now giving way to one in which Africa is known for what it builds. He recalled that “in 2024 alone, Africans abroad sent home about $95 billion”, which is more than five per cent of the GDP and roughly equal to total foreign direct investment.
Mr Shettima maintained that the experience had been shaped by a simple lesson, that “prosperity is not imported; it is built,” adding that the nation has “seen the prosperity paradox up close.”
President John Mahama of Ghana explained that the introduction of the Accra Reset Initiative at the last United Nations General Assembly in New York was not another declaration or a wish list but a practical answer to a question millions of young Africans are asking about the continent’s future and response to the changing global order.
The president called for synergy and cooperation among African leaders, adding that though no specific name has been coined for the new global system that will emerge.
He added, ”Africa intends to be at the table in determining what that new global order will look like.”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo dwelt on what Africa required to take its rightful place in the comity of nations, given the “new age of disruption, uncertainty and unpredictability”.
“The Accra Reset Initiative has come to inspire leaders to stop complaining about the system that has changed or is changing and to build a way through it,” the former president added.
Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said the essence of the forum was to galvanise support for African governments to rethink their strategies for transforming economies and to address the challenges confronting the people.
(NAN)