Source: newsthemegh.com
To reach the standards of wealthy nations, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has encouraged Africa to abandon the mindset of impossibility and adopt a mindset of possibility.
Dr. Bawumia said that the continued reliance on inefficient systems in Africa is the bane of the continent’s economic growth and development. He added that the status quo persists because the continent has, for many years, not broken the “shackles of impossibility mindsets.” Dr. Bawumia was speaking to attendees of Harvard University’s Africa Development Conference in the United States over the weekend.
“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,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“For the longest time we have not believed in ourselves. The dominant mindset is one of impossibility.”
The lack of efficient systems, such as an identity system and a property addressing system, as well as significant financial exclusion and manual delivery of public services are some of the major contributory factors to Africa’s stunted progress, according to Dr. Bawumia, who was speaking about issues limiting the continent’s economic growth.
Dr. Bawumia pointed out that in order to address these issues, Africa must embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution and, more crucially, shed its impossible mindset, which he claimed is a significant obstacle to the continent’s progress.
“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 has successfully led Ghana’s digitalization initiative at home in Ghana to solve some of the foundational system concerns he discussed at the Conference.
He has frequently discussed how pessimists tried to thwart and dissuade many of the successful digital innovations he led, as not possible to achieve. He has, however, had his own issues with “impossibility mindsets.”
High level participants are brought together at the Harvard Africa Development Conference to debate topics pertaining to the development of the African continent.
As the Guest of Honor, Vice President Bawumia gave the keynote speech.