Remarks by President John Mahama at the Royal African Society Business Breakfast Meeting in London, October 22, 2014.

It’s a pleasure to be here in your company and to be given the opportunity to share some thoughts on Ghana’s development goals, especially as they pertain to investment opportunities.
I learned my first and most important lesson on investments quite early in my youth. I was in secondary school when a mate approached me and asked that I invest some money in a project he was putting together. I have long ago forgotten the details and particulars of the project, but I do remember that it sounded exciting, innovative and sophisticated—all the characteristics that appeal to young people who are approaching adulthood.
And, of course, the most exciting part of it all was the prospect of growing my small money into big money. Actually, the money I was to invest, which translates roughly in today’s terms to about 25 pounds, was already big money in my small, unemployed student hands, so the idea of it doubling, or even tripling… Wow! That was all I needed to know. Of course I made the investment.
So I handed over my cash and waited patiently for the big day—the day my mate had promised he would hand over the amount I had invested plus whatever profit there was to give. But when that day came, I got nothing. In fact, when that day came, my mate was nowhere to be found.
For weeks he skillfully avoided me, and the several others who had also given him money. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for us to figure out that he was just a ‘smooth talker’, a budding con man; and we had fallen for his artful scheme.When he finally resurfaced and I got the opportunity to confront him, he was cavalier about the whole situation. “Oh John,” he said. “Don’t worry. Your money is safe. You’ll get it back.”
I was suddenly hopeful. “I will?”
“Absolutely,” he assured me, though he refused to give any definitive timeline.
“Just know,” he said, “that as long as I owe you, you will never be broke. There will always be some money out there in the world that belongs to you.”
It was a different perspective on the situation, one that I’d never so much as considered. And it made me pause because for the briefest of moments, it seemed somewhat plausible. Obviously, it would have been ridiculous to think that it was possible for me to ever get my money back; but such perspectives are the basic underpinnings of a fool’s paradise.
~~~
Not long after that incident I learned another important lesson, this time on the global view of African self-sufficiency. I was in university, reading History and English. One evening as I was thumbing through a magazine, I came across the most fascinating article. It was one of those self-important current events-style magazines that examine foreign affairs and policies.
This was in the late 1970s, and there was quite a lot going on in the world. With the help of US president Jimmy Carter, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli premier Menachem Begin had signed onto the “Framework for Peace” in the Middle East; at the Vatican, Pope Paul VI had died after a 15-year pontificate and then his successor, Pope John Paul I died suddenly after only 34 days in office; in Iran, the Shah was forced to leave and Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to lead a revolution; and here, in the United Kingdom, Baroness Margaret Thatcher was well on her way to moving into 10 Downing Street as the first female Prime Minister.
These are all remarkable events that, prior to happening, would have probably seemed all but impossible in the minds of most people; yet they did, in fact, happen. But this particular article that I read was on Africa. Specifically, it was on the near impossibility of the continent ever again achieving stability. Yes, it was true that much of the continent had experienced virtually no economic growth, and that the economies of some countries were even retracting.
Yes, it was also true that coup d’etats had become all too common on the continent and that many African nations, including Ghana, were under military rule. Still, I was shocked to read such a dismal prediction of Africa’s future, written with such authority and conclusiveness. One individual, who was identified by the title “Africa expert,” was quoted as saying, “The problem with rebuilding Africa is that there is no one there to do it. The continuing ‘brain drain’ has made certain of this.”
I was struck by the sheer absence of logic in that statement. No one there?
“What about me?” I asked aloud. “What about all the other students in this university? In all the universities–not just in Ghana, but throughout the continent? What about the lecturers, the businessmen and bankers, the doctors and nurses, the traders and market women? Were we not worthy of being counted? Were we not capable?”
In time, the more I read and researched, the more I got a glimpse of Africa from the outside looking in, it became clear to me that the answer to those questions was no.
In the eyes of the world, in the global view of Africa, we were not capable; we were not worthy of being counted.
And as illogical as I may have found that assumption when I first read that “doom and gloom” article, the irony is that the so-called Africa experts were basing such assumptions on what they thought was logical. They were using the facts and figures of Africa’s immediate circumstances to predict a future that, to them, seemed utter plausible.
After all, if—as it is often written—the millions of individuals who left the continent either by political force or of their own free will during the era of the “brain drain”, were indeed the best and the brightest, then should it not be inferred that the continent was left with only the worst of the lot, those who were intellectually inferior?
And what in the world, what in Africa, what in their own communities could they manage to achieve?
~~~
As President, I am regularly invited to discuss investment opportunities that exist in Ghana and Africa in general. I am asked to address questions and concerns about the safety of such investments in our current economic climate.
In my preparations for such discussions, these two experiences often come to mind: the experience of being conned out of money by my secondary school mate, and the experience of reading that article and realizing that my view of Africa’s fate was so vastly different from the vision that was being illustrated by so many in the world outside of the continent.
At first, these two experiences may not seem to have anything to do with each other, let alone with the current climate of investment in Africa, but in fact they do. They both speak to conditions that could possibly inform and, ultimately, influence prospective investors, people who are interested in knowing the truth about the viability of Africa’s prospects. They speak to how easy it can be to confuse what is actually possible with what, though momentarily plausible, is utterly impractical.
Contrary to what some may believe or even expect, I am not here today to sell Ghana or to sell Africa. Already, Africa has been sold too many times, by too many people, and in too many ways that have benefitted no one. The facts and the figures are available for all to see, to analyze, and to use as a guide in the decision-making process of investment. But facts and figures can be likened to snapshots in that they are static, frozen in the time and place they were taken. They show only a portion of the whole picture; tell only a portion of a story that seeps past the ink and beyond the borders of the paper on which it is printed.
What I am here to do is tell the stories that existed before the accumulation of those facts and figures, the stories that remain fluid and active even as I speak. It is those stories that even during the time when those dismal projections were being written, made Africa feel so attractive, inviting, and full of promise to those of us who understood the transformation that was quietly taking place. Now that those past assumptions about Africa have been proven wrong, now that countries like Ghana have proven that they can not only achieve stability but catapult themselves onto the world stage and be considered rising stars, it is still those stories that matter most.
They are still the best indicators of what is truly happening, the transformation that continues to take place, though not as quietly or as seemingly incredulous as once before.
And it is the people of Ghana who play an active role in those stories that ultimately become reduced to statistics; the worthy and capable people who have resuscitated and are actively rebuilding their communities, our countries, our continent.
I would like to share with you a few of those stories.
Like the story of Salma Okonkwo, the Chief Executive Officer of UBI Group, the first indigenous Ghanaian company to supply petroleum and ancillary services to oil and gas exploration and production companies in order to support the development of the Jubilee Field during the early stages all the way through to the first oil find. UBI Group is also the only fully integrated downstream company in the oil and gas industry. In 2008 when Ms. Okonkwo formed UBI Petroleum and the company was licensed to commence business as an oil marketing company in Ghana, I suspect that many would not have thought an investment in her or UBI a safe choice.
However, Ms. Okonkwo, who hails from the predominantly male and historically underserved Northern region of Ghana, defied all societal constrictions and shattered numerous glass ceilings to become the first woman to currently, actively and successfully participate in the Ghanaian energy sector. And her efforts have now attracted premium investors and partners, like Trafigura/Puma, which is the third ranked trading company worldwide.
There is also the story of Herman Chinery-Hesse, a software engineer by profession. In 1990 when Mr. Chinery-Hesse returned to Ghana after living and working in the UK, the country had not yet been returned to constitutional democracy. An investment in SOFTtribe Limited, the software development company that Mr. Chinery-Hesse then founded from a bedroom in his parents’ house, might very well have been considered high-risk.
Yet Mr. Chinery-Hesse, who the BBC has often referred to as “the Bill Gates of Africa,” proved himself to be a visionary entrepreneur by becoming a leader in Africa’s IT market that continues to grow exponentially. Since its formation, SOFTtribe has remained one of the leading software houses not only in Ghana but on the entire continent.
There are numerous examples and stories to be told of Ghanaians whose nascent efforts, at the time, may have seemed highly impractical, underpins of a fool’s paradise. Yet collectively, these stories have shown the world, in facts and figures, what is actually possible in Ghana.
Then, too, are the stories of foreign companies that have realized both safety and success in their investments. These are companies like Barry Callebaut, the world leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products; and Cargill, Incorporated, an American privately held multinational corporations based in Minnesota that has been sourcing from Ghana for over 40 years. In 2007, Cargill constructed a state of the art cocoa processing facility in Ghana that became fully operational the following year.
Other examples are Tullow Oil and Vodafone, both UK companies; Coca-Cola and Huawei, as well as Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest oilfield services companies, which operates in over 90 countries, providing the oils and gas industry with needed products and services.
This is an exciting time for Ghana. We are crossing new thresholds, expanding our development, creating partnerships and exploring frontiers in a way that not so long ago were barely imaginable. And as we do so, we are encountering an array of opportunities continued growth and investment that seem virtually limitless.
~~~
I have spoken a bit about impracticality, and lest I appear to be all “mouth and trousers,” like my mate in secondary school, I’d like to touch on a few practical assurances of investment safety in Ghana.
The spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa has given rise to many concerns in the business community. This is understandable. Ebola should not be considered a West African disease. It is an epidemic that we, as an entire world, must work together to end.
That said, there has not been one documented case of Ebola in my country, and Ghana is not merely well-prepared to fight the disease, should it cross over our borders, but by offering our capital city, Accra, as the base of operations for activities geared towards the containment of the disease— Ghana is well poised to assist our sister nations in the fight against its spread.
Ghana was ranked 7th in the 2013 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which ranks each country on the quality and strength of its governance.
Throughout Ghana’s history, from the time of our independence, we have remained a beacon of peace, even during the decades that portion of the West African subregion were engulfed in civil wars. Ghana boasts an active and engaged civil society; solid and well-functioning institutions; a free and independent media; and respect for the rule of law is unassailable.
And the assurance that is perhaps, for me, one of the greatest sources of pride is the fact that Ghana has always been a trailblazer on the African continent. Through all the transitions and transformations in our development, we have come out stronger.
Our persistence, innovation and perseverance has always forged new paths for our sister countries on the continent to follow on their own journeys toward liberation, political stability, economic independence and social progress.
I am an African and live in Africa. I live it.
I might not be an “Africa expert,” but the future that I predict for Ghana is indeed bright and prosperous.
I look forward to your questions.
I thank you for the opportunity to speak today at this breakfast, and for your kind attention.
(Source: The Office of The Presidency Ghana)