President John Mahama has called on African countries to pool their negotiating power on critical minerals, trade and industrial policy, arguing that fragmented bargaining has left the continent rich in resources but poor in value capture.
Speaking at the Accra Reset on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mahama said Africa continues to supply raw materials to global markets while exporting jobs, profits, and industrial capability. Without coordinated action, he warned, Africa will remain trapped in extractive economic models.
Mahama said the continent must move quickly to develop regional manufacturing hubs, energy grids and digital infrastructure that allow countries to industrialise together rather than compete in isolation. No single African economy, he said, is large enough to industrialise alone.
The Accra Reset vision calls for greater sovereignty over natural resources, including collective negotiation on critical minerals used in clean energy and technology supply chains. Mahama noted that such coordination would strengthen Africa’s leverage in global markets and allow governments to channel investment into downstream processing and manufacturing.
He also pressed for renewed industrial policy, dismissing claims that it is outdated. Producing vaccines, medicines, solar panels and advanced components locally, he said, is now a matter of economic survival rather than ideology.
Africa’s youthful population makes the challenge urgent. Mahama warned that without jobs and skills aligned to real economic activity, the demographic dividend could turn into a liability. He called for investment in digital, green energy and manufacturing skills, alongside regional infrastructure that supports private enterprise.
Ghana’s President said the Accra Reset is not seeking charity but partnerships based on mutual respect, with Global South countries co-designing investment frameworks with partners in the North. The initiative aims to create regional prosperity platforms where governments coordinate on infrastructure, jobs and industrial development.
The effort, supported by institutions including the African Development Bank and led in part by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, will next be taken to the African Union summit in Addis Ababa as leaders seek to translate the Davos discussions into concrete policy alignment.
