By: W. K. Adusu & Nana Kwesi Roka
THE MINISTER of Commerce, Loveworld Nation and Convenor of the Loveworld Trade and Investment Forum (LTIF), Madam Stephanie Oforka, has declared that Africa cannot achieve meaningful economic transformation if businesses remain isolated within national borders.
She made the call yesterday when she officially opened the Loveworld Trade and Investment Forum (LTIF), Accra Edition, organized on the theme: “Build The Future Through Production, Trade, Trust and Innovation”.
Delivering the opening address, Madam Oforka said the narrative about Africa must shift from what it has to what it produces.
“For too long, conversations about Africa and the future have been centred around what Africans are getting. We talk a lot about our potential – our minerals, our land, our population. But potential itself does not take us far,” she noted.
“Population is not automatically power. It must become a productive, innovative, trusted and enterprising population.”
Madam Oforka noted that LTIF was created as a marketplace for transformation, designed to move businesses from connections to transactions, from introductions to partnerships, and from conversation to commerce.
According to her, the forum challenges African businesses to become stronger, entrepreneurs to move forward, and innovations to move from ideas to industry.
“We come to Ghana not just because it is another country outside the borders of Nigeria, we come to expand, we come to shake hands with you in Ghana,” she said.
“Africa cannot achieve meaningful economic transformation while businesses remain isolated. Ghana must trade with Nigeria, Nigeria must trade with Kenya, Kenya must trade with South Africa, South Africa must trade with Ghana and beyond. You must find suppliers, find investors, find partners across the continent.”
She stressed that Africa must produce more of what it consumes and must produce what the world wants, rather than just building services around what others have created.
Addressing the central question of the forum – Can Africa industrialize in this generation? – Madam Oforka answered in the affirmative, saying it requires more than optimism.
“I believe we can industrialize in one generation, but it requires activity, building. It requires men and women who are willing to establish factories, build industry in Ghana, invest in technology, build people, build finance and enterprise, create products, create value and patiently build,” she said.
She further charged delegates, especially young people, to adopt a nation-building mindset by asking, “What can I do? What problem can I solve?”
“That is the mindset that changes a country,” she added.
The LTIF Accra Edition continues with business networking, exhibitions, investor pitch sessions and cross-border trade linkages, attracting entrepreneurs, investors and innovators from across Africa and beyond.
Source: Nationaltymes.com
