President John Dramani Mahama has described the Global Africa Investment Summit as a timely and transformative platform capable of reshaping how global capital engages with Africa — at scale, with purpose, and for shared prosperity.

Speaking at the official launch of the summit in Dubai February 3, 2026,  President Mahama commended Dr Akinwumi Adesina and Madame Marguerite Krauss for their vision and leadership in establishing what he described as a strategic global investment platform for Africa.

“The Global Africa Investment Summit has the potential to fundamentally change how global capital engages with Africa,” President Mahama said, noting that the initiative was the result of years of dialogue and shared conviction about Africa’s future beyond aid dependency.

The president paid glowing tribute to Dr Adesina, former President of the African Development Bank Group, highlighting his decades of leadership and the transformative impact of his work on more than 565 million people across the continent. He noted that Dr Adesina’s retirement from the Bank in September 2025 had only marked the beginning of a new chapter of service to Africa.

Describing Dr Adesina as “Africa’s optimist-in-chief,” President Mahama said it was fitting that he was once again leading a bold continental initiative — this time on a global investment stage. He noted that the summit’s theme, Mobilising Global Capital for Africa’s Next Growth Chapter, aptly captured the urgency of the moment.

President Mahama observed that geopolitical fragmentation, shifting supply chains, the declining role of traditional aid, and intense global competition for capital require Africa to adopt a new approach. He stressed that Africa must no longer be a passive participant in the global economy but must actively shape engagement on its own terms.

This thinking, he explained, underpins Ghana’s Accra Reset agenda, which calls for a decisive shift from aid dependency to economic sovereignty, self-determination, and investment-led growth. “Moving from aid to investment is not merely desirable; it is essential for sustainable development,” he said.

He emphasised that the Global Africa Investment Summit is not a symbolic gesture but a practical step toward unlocking Africa’s vast sovereign assets. The real challenge, he noted, lies in converting these assets into credible, investable portfolios with clear revenue streams, bankable structures, and long-term returns.

Using Ghana as an example, President Mahama highlighted the country’s strong natural resource base, describing gold as its single largest asset. Ghana is Africa’s largest gold producer and among the top ten globally, with annual production exceeding five million ounces.

He disclosed that reforms in Ghana’s gold export sector have already yielded significant results, with gold volumes from the small-scale mining sector increasing from 63 tonnes in 2024 to 104 tonnes within ten months, generating revenues of about US$10 billion over the same period.

President Mahama also pointed to Ghana’s position as the world’s fourth-largest producer of manganese and its significant bauxite reserves, which place the country at the centre of global and emerging value chains, particularly for steel production and electric vehicle batteries.

He reiterated Ghana’s determination to move beyond the export of raw materials, announcing that the country has taken the bold decision to ban the export of raw mineral ores. He invited global investors to partner with Ghana not only in extraction but in value addition and manufacturing.

Such partnerships, he said, would create jobs, transfer skills, expand foreign exchange earnings, and strengthen Africa’s strategic position in the geopolitics of critical minerals and rare earths.

President Mahama stressed that global capital does not invest in isolated projects but in scalable platforms, noting that the Global Africa Investment Summit offers precisely that—well-structured investment platforms across minerals, energy, infrastructure, trade, and logistics.

“Africa already has the assets,” he said. “What we are building now is the architecture that enables those assets to speak the language of global capital.”

He added that shifting from aid and debt dependence to asset-driven growth would allow African economies to attract long-term capital without unsustainable increases in public debt, while anchoring development in ownership, productivity, and resilience.

As a strong advocate for the African Union and African financial institutions, President Mahama welcomed the summit as a transparent and collaborative space for engaging global investors, combining political stability with professional asset restructuring to deliver fair returns and tangible benefits for African citizens.

He described the summit as a game-changer that would unlock the full value of Africa’s sovereign assets and firmly reposition the continent from an aid-driven narrative to an investment-driven future.

President Mahama reaffirmed Ghana’s full support for the initiative and called on stakeholders to work together to reset the narrative, mobilise global capital, and unlock Africa’s vast potential for the benefit of Africa and the world.