Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has urged Africans to eschew the mindset of impossibility and embrace a possibility one, to propel the continent’s development.

Addressing participants at the Harvard University’s 2023 edition of the Harvard Africa Development Conference in the United States, Dr. Bawumia identified continuous reliance on ineffective systems as the bane for Africa’s underdevelopment.

‘The status quo remains because the continent has, for many years, not broken the ‘shackles of impossibility mindsets.

‘The truth is that while African countries are politically free, we still have a mindset that is shackled by the experience of 500 years of slavery and colonialism,’ the Vice-President added.

He explained that Africans for a long time failed to believe themselves, noting that the dominant mindset was that of impossibility.

on issues militating against Africa’s economic growth, Dr. Bawumia said, the over reliance on raw materials, instead of human capital development, and ineffective systems were contributory factors stunting the continent’s progress.

He also mentioned lack of unique identity system, property addressing system, huge financial exclusion and manual delivery of public services as some of the major factors hindering Africa’s development.

To resolve these challenges, the Vice President underscored the need for Africa to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and break the impossibility mindset, adding; ‘This is a major hindrance to Africa’s forward march’.

‘Our generation needs to break the shackles of the impossibility mindset and embrace the mindset of possibility!

‘It is time for us to figure out the best ways to be masters of our destiny, to chart our own path and develop on our own terms. It is Possible!’Dr Bawumia stated.

The Vice President has, over the past six years, been spearheading Ghana’s successful digitalization drive to address some of the basic system challenges.

In the process, he said, it encountered ‘impossibility mindsets,’ and had often spoken about how pessimists attempted to impede and discourage many of the succesful digital innovations he led, as not possible to implement.

The Harvard Africa Development Conference brought together high-profile personalities to discuss issues relating to the development of the African continent.

Vice President Bawumia delivered the keynote address as the Guest of Honour at the Conference.

Source: Ghana News Agency