Africa Capacity Building Foundation holds 31st Annual Meeting of Board of Governors in Accra

The Minister in charge of Finance in Ghana, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta on Monday, May 23, 2022, had the honour to chair the 31st Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) in Accra.

The main objective of the meeting held at the International Conference Center in Ghana’s capital Accra is to seek broad policy and strategic direction for the Foundation as well as discuss sustainability issues.

Delivering an address, Ken Ofori-Atta underscored the significance of the meeting, insisting that this is the time to be aggressive and innovative in repositioning Africa Union’s agency for capacity-building development.

He said ACBF must through its work enable countries to take full advantage of the new prospects presented by the fourth industrial revolution driven by the transition to knowledge-based economies.

“To do this we must be aggressive in sustaining ongoing efforts at improving processes and systems. We must be innovative in seeking out new partnerships and finances that will bolster the achievements of the agreed agenda for socio-economic transformation of the continents. We must entrench the relevance of the conversation to ensure that Africa builds better forward,” the ACBF chair of the Board of Governors shared.

In his speech, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta said ACBF after becoming the specialised Capacity Building Institution for the Africa Union must double efforts to promote inclusive growth.

He said it is important that women and young people are empowered so they reach their potential to help the progress and growth of the African continent.

“Together as a foundation we must continue to prioritise inclusive growth, we must continue to empower African women and youth to realise their demographic dividends in the light of AFCFTA to strengthen Africa’s capacity to trade must become the foremost priority of our foundation,” Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta said at the meeting attended by high ACBF officials from various member countries.

The ACBF chair of the Board of Governors further stressed, “We must align our priorities with efforts to boost Africa’s income by some 450 billion dollars by 2036.”

At the meeting, representatives of partners including the African Development Bank, UNDP, and the World Bank had similar goodwill messages.

All representatives of the partners applauded the Africa Capacity Building Foundation for the work done in the past.

They assured of the continuous commitment to support the ACBF to remain in business to inspire the growth and development of the African continent through capacity-building programmes.

At the 31st Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of ACBF, the Board of Governors received an update on the activities of the Secretariat and the 2021 Financial Statements from the Executive Board.

With 2022 being the last year of the current strategy (2017-2022), the meeting saw top officials of ACBF discussing what is on the horizon as they considered the roadmap to develop the next strategy.

The Board of Governors of ACBF took advantage of the meeting to deepen the partnership with member countries and strategic institutions such as multilateral and regional partners.