Guyana President urges African leaders to fashion out mechanism for payment of reparation

President Akufo-Addo(left) and President Dr Mohammed Irfaan Ali of Guyana

The President of Guyana, Dr Mohammed Irfaan Ali, has appealed to African leaders to focus on fashioning out the necessary mechanisms that will compel perpetrators of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to pay reparations to those affected by the dastardly act.

President Akufo-Addo(middle) with President Dr Mohammed Irfaan Ali (left), President of Guyana and other officials

According to him, the debate had gone past whether there was a legitimate demand for the payment of reparation or not to the affected individuals since the perpetrators had already accepted responsibility and apologised.

“I think we have long gone past that question…that recognition has already been given that reparation must be paid so there is no longer any debate whether there is the need for reparation. We have long gone past that.

What is needed now is mechanism, the structure, how are we going to move from apology to a mechanism that leads to reparation and that definitely cannot take another 100 years. That should be objective…that should be the focus, that should be the singular focus of all of us,” he emphasised.

Dr Ali made the appeal while contributing to the Presidential Panel Dialogue with business leaders at the second edition of the African Prosperity Dialogue (APD) organised by the African Prosperity Network (APN) at Peduase in the Akuapim South Municipality of the Eastern Region.

The Presidential Panel Dialogue section of the three-day ADP is on the theme: “Leveraging Reparations for Infrastructure for Africa and Global Africa.”

He said the issue of reparation now required getting the guilty party to establish a mechanism of payment, adding that “there is nothing to blush over, there is nothing to gloss over. The recognition is there, an apology has been made… are we going to wait for another 500 years for the mechanism for reparation? No!” he stated emphatically.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on his part, pledged to rally his colleague heads of state to promote interoperability and make it readily available across the African Continent.

He explained that mobile money interoperability enabled traders and customers to make transfers between mobile money accounts on different mobile money platforms as well as reduce the cost of initiating transactions across networks.

President Akufo-Addo said it should be possible to make interoperability a reality across Africa with the right political will, adding, “Just like I did last year, I intend, with the support of my colleagues, to present the Peduase Compact to the 37th Ordinary Assembly of Heads of State in Addis Ababa in three weeks’ time.”

BY CLIFF EKUFUL, PEDUASE